


i just want you to know (i’m serious)

by bloominghwa



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Animal Crossing - Freeform, M/M, a lot of swearing i think, also remember that video where yunho said his mom loves mingi ?, also the ending is shit sorry, and they’re also matchmakers, but like a shit one, hongjoong is like the mom friend but like in shambles, i don’t know what i was trying to accomplish in this fic i just needed to write something i’m sorry, jongho babie, seonghwa thinks they’re both stupid, this fic is just 3 am thoughts in a nice package, trying to be at least, wooyoung and san are like double trouble, writer’s block writing help, yeosang has a crush, yeosang is mingi’s relationship advisor, yungi are literally just confused the entire time, yunho has 2 sisters, yunho’s mom is like best mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24801094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloominghwa/pseuds/bloominghwa
Summary: Mingi realizes you’re not suppose to feel all fluttery when you look at your best friend.Alternatively, Yungi are chaotic, confused, and stupid gays
Relationships: Jeong Yunho & Song Mingi, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kang Yeosang & Park Seonghwa, Kang Yeosang/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 16
Kudos: 107





	i just want you to know (i’m serious)

**Author's Note:**

> hi so this is probably not the best thing i’ve written. it’s probably the worst, but i spent so much time on it i thought i’d post it anyways because that’s just what i do i guess.
> 
> sorry if you don’t like it ?? i guess ??
> 
> feel free to comment and stuff <33 and i hope everyone is doing ok and stay safe <333

Yunho is Mingi’s best friend.

That fact is well-known by almost literally everyone because both of them would proudly declare so in any unprompted situation. And if not, then the fact that their shoulders are glued together every waking hour would probably clue you in.

Their dramatic tale of friendship began in high school, the hell in which you’re either horny all the time or have no fucking clue what’s going on.

Mingi likes to tell people that he and Yunho met in math class, and that they both got detention by teaming up and calling the teacher out on her unfair grading techniques. And then after school, they both arrived at detention in silence before immediately hitting it off talking about video games and other stuff.

Yunho always counters him by saying it’s a complete lie (other than their high school math teacher being a shitty one), but Mingi only denies it and tells the story to some other unfortunate soul who approaches them. Sometimes he adds the “long-lost childhood friends” trope just to spice things up a little. Even if it was a lie, the story Mingi made up definitely makes him sound way cooler than when he and Yunho actually met.

It really started when Mingi was trying to get orange juice out of the vending machine in a park and ended up kicking the damn thing out of frustration. A mildly surprised but very pained “ow!” came from the machine as his foot connected, and he apologized profusely to the apparently sentient object that he supposedly offended with his kick.

“What the fuck dude, why are you apologizing to the vending machine.”

Yunho had stuck his head out from behind the machine and looked at him half-quizzical half-annoyed, only to put his hands up and reassure Mingi that it was ok when he bent down ninety degrees and practically begged for forgiveness. He ended up buying a drink for Yunho to compensate as they both sat down on steps to the recreational center, sipping their respective beverages while roasting in the sun.

In conclusion, Mingi is not going to stop telling his story any time soon, much to Yunho’s chagrin.

“Mingimingimingi, look at this cool latte art video I found!”

Mingi groans as he flops over on his side and his eyes try to focus on the phone Yunho is waving in front of him. The other looks very energetic for being awake at three in the morning, and Mingi could see his teeth practically glowing under the reflection of the streetlights on his window as he smiles.

“What?” he replies groggily, blinking at the blurry screen in front of him.

“It’s a bear, dude! They made a _bear_.”

Yunho is bouncing up and down on the bed with eyes glittering. If Mingi wasn’t half-asleep, he’d probably join in. What his sleep-addled brain could register is that the smile that’s splitting Yunho’s face, and he would admit that it’s endearing to look at.

“I wanna make latte art.”

Mingi blinks.

“You want to…what?”

“Latte art, Min, latte art!”

“We don’t even own bowls and you want to make _latte art_?”

Yunho deflates a little, a small pout already settling on his lips as he mulls over Mingi’s words, and _oh fuck_. Unlike literally anyone in their friend group, who are quite blunt at ass in the morning, and would just tell Yunho to shut up and go back to sleep or straight ignore him, Mingi did not have the will to look into Yunho’s puppy dog eyes and tell him to go back to sleep. Just as Mingi is sitting up and beginning to panic, Yunho perks up again, his eyes shining and wide.

“Let’s buy an espresso machine then! And the milk foamer thingy!”

“It’s steamed milk,” Mingi sighs, pulling his arms underneath him to support his weight. “And we are not buying an espresso machine.”

“Oh, don’t be a party pooper. I know you want to try latte art too.”

Ok, so what if he did? But there's no way in hell he's going to tell Yunho that, especially _now_.

“I’m trying to be reasonable, stupid. We’re broke college students and we still have to pay rent.”

Yunho stops jumping again and his face flattens into a serious expression.

“Ok, but we can bribe the landlord with our amazing latte art,” he proposes, pointing a finger at Mingi, who bats it away. “You can’t tell me I’m wrong.”

Mingi hates when Yunho makes sense.

“…Well fuck, he may be onto something,” he mumbles as quiet as he could to himself, only to have Yunho’s face in front of him, looking like he was trying his best to hold in his laughter.

“So…it’s a yes then?” The brunette supports his chin with his hands as he pushes Mingi on, acting like Mingi hadn’t basically agreed already.

“Ugh…Yeah.”

Yunho has the dopiest grin on his face when Mingi says that, and if Mingi is completely honest, he didn’t know why he denied Yunho in the first place. Sure, it was probably a three a.m thought that would be a great idea until three a.m passed, but he feels like maybe it would be worthwhile to indulge in the impulses sometimes.

A hard thump is heard as Yunho flops down next to Mingi. Mingi winces at the sound, knowing that his mattress is equivalent to cardboard in terms of comfortableness. Shifting back a little, he allows space on his pillow for Yunho’s head and the other happily picks himself up and flops down again. He’s facing Mingi and their noses are almost touching, but that doesn’t seem to affect him one bit as his smile grows bigger while he leans in closer. Mingi doesn’t move and opts to will himself to fall asleep instead.

“Hey Mingi~” Yunho speaks up after several moments, his breath is right on Mingi’s lips.

Mingi swallows quietly, his shoulders tensing as he realized the extreme lack of distance between them. Yunho’s voice is rough and tired, echoing around his head with a playful lilt in his tone. His throat rumbles a little bit as he clears it.

“W-what now, idiot?” His voice wobbles a little as he opens his eyes and takes in the way Yunho’s eyes are glowing faintly. Yunho’s eyes are very pretty, objectively.

“Let’s go get the stuff we need now,” Yunho suggests, pulling Mingi’s blanket over himself.

The weird feeling that began curling in Mingi’s stomach subsides almost immediately.

“Oh my god, I’m going back to sleep asshole.”

——————

Yunho did not abandon the thought of latte art when he woke Mingi up three hours later.

It’s six a.m. and they’re currently inside of a supermarket with a poor, tired employee manning the register. The boy was clearly too delirious to greet them to the store properly, but it wasn’t like Yunho was listening to him anyways.

Mingi follows behind Yunho, yawning as he ruffles his unruly hair with a hand stuffed into the pocket of his hoodie. His best friend is bouncing off the walls, still way too excited for a sleep-deprived college kid, as he searches for his espresso machine and coffee beans. They’ve already scoured through three rows, Yunho getting distracted by various items from time to time and really prolonging the search more than they should. Mingi yawns again as he briefly scans each shelf they pass by. He suddenly perks up as a familiar packaging shows up in his peripherals.

“Yunho, look!”

Yunho whips his head around and is immediately by Mingi’s side, chin hooking over his shoulder as he peers at where Mingi is pointing.

“Is that—?” Mingi nods vigorously and turns to Yunho with glittering eyes.

“Beef jerky, dude! We haven’t had that in ages.”

Before Yunho could stop him, Mingi was already sweeping the shelf of beef jerky into their shopping cart. Some bags fell perfectly into the basket while others flopped off the sides of the cart onto the floor in a thundering crinkle. 

“Mingi no!” Yunho is crouching and trying to put some bags of jerky that fell on the floor back onto the shelf the same time Mingi is shoveling them in. “Dude, we have a budget!”

“We’re here to buy your espresso machine, Yunho. Let’s make some sacrifices here.” Mingi replies nonchalantly, continuing to sweep the bags that Yunho put onto the shelf back into the shopping cart.

“It’s _our_ espresso machine. _Ours_.”

“Well these are _our_ beef jerkys.”

Yunho groans, putting down the bags he’s holding in defeat. Mingi had swept the entire row into their cart, which is now overflowing with cheap jerky and some other miscellaneous snacks that they picked up along the way.

“We’ll get two bags,” he compromises, picking up two sad looking packages of beef jerky off the tiled floor and raising a suggestive eyebrow.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“Three. Payment for dragging me out here six a.m.” Mingi crosses his arms, putting on his no-nonsense face which is really just him sticking out his bottom lip pleadingly.

“Fine,” Yunho sighs, “but you better find us a good espresso machine.”

Mingi cheers and picks up an armful of beef jerky, shoving them back into the shelf again while Yunho collects those that still remain on the ground. After putting back all but three bags, he pivots and gets ready to stand, only to see Yunho praying next to him. He wasn’t doing the half-assed, palms-pressed-together kind of praying either, but full on kneeling and bowing, mumbling his blessings to someone, doing a weird motion with his hands and sending them to the front of the store.

“What are you doing?”

“Praying for the poor worker in the front that has to reorganize your beef jerky,” Yunho deadpans, eyes still closed and hands still doing their motions that weirdly looked like they came from Naruto.

Mingi briefly thinks about the multiple security cameras he saw around the store and hopes the security guards don’t file them as a public disturbance or report them to the police. He really didn’t want to be blacklisted by the only grocery store that sells decent fruit and kitchen appliances.

“Alright, let’s go find your stupid espresso machine.”

He brushes off his pants, pulling the cart behind him.

“Hey! I didn’t call your beef jerky stupid so you can’t call _our_ espresso machine stupid either!” 

Yunho catches up to him and punches him in the arm, sticking his tongue out when Mingi whirls on him. Mingi only scoffs, tapping Yunho lightly on the nose as punishment before pushing the cart away. Huffing, Yunho chases after him, butting his hip into Mingi’s and grabbing the handle to take over pushing instead. Mingi bumps him back, but moves himself over a little so that they could both push the cart. They probably looked like grade-school kids if anyone was around to see them, but a surge of heart fluttering amusement washes over Mingi as he looks at his best friend humming a song neither of them had heard before.

After getting sidetracked while wandering in multiple more aisles, they finally make it back to the front of the store, just as the sun is slanting through the windows in the front. Their cart is packed chock full of random snacks, both familiar and new, that they’re definitely going to finish way too fast. If anything, they’ll just come back and buy some more, forgetting all about the meticulously planned budget that they swore to follow after rooming together.

Yunho begins scooping up armfuls of snacks layering on top of the box with the espresso machine inside. Mingi had caved when Yunho whirled around and asked for the sleekest looking one, which happened to be way more expensive than the cheapest one, but fortunately did not lean towards the most expensive. Not that he would tell Yunho, but he’d shell out anything to see the other smile at him the way he did.

He lifts the boxes onto the counter with a huff as Yunho continues with chip bags. While doing so, he catches a glimpse of the cashier’s face from behind the box.

Let’s just say Mingi almost rushes back to organize the beef jerky he rammed into the small metal space of the shelves.

As if his face didn’t just twist despairingly, the worker recovers with a tight smile and barely looks at them (probably because his eyes are essentially shut), scanning their items robotically at an almost sluggish pace. Yunho glances at Mingi as if reprimanding him for doing such vile acts to the beef jerky that the worker is supposed to clean up, but Mingi stares right back because it wasn’t him who decided to go on a 6 a.m shopping trip.

“Will that be cash or credit…sirs?” The cashier essentially yawns out, like a cotton ball is stuck in his throat.

Mingi and Yunho both pull out their wallets, Mingi from his back pocket and Yunho materializing his out of nowhere. There’s a moment of silence as they stare each other down.

“I’m paying.”

“No you’re not. I am.”

“Like hell you are! I got it out first!”

“No you didn’t!”

Two cards begin shoving themselves in front of the cashier’s face, batting the other one away as soon as it gets close to the card machine. None of them have dropped their card yet, the tenacity to pay gluing their fingers to the plastic. It’s like they’re fencing with little square pieces of unpaid cash, with both of them even adding some fancy footwork as they try to insert their card into the card machine.

“I’ll pay! I’ll pay!”

The cashier slams his hand down on the counter, looking like he was on the verge of breaking down in the middle of his job. His eyes are bloodshot and rather scary, and the fighting duo immediately takes several steps back, with Mingi holding onto Yunho’s arm and Yunho grabbing Mingi’s sleeve.

“Please…just…I’ll pay for you ok? I got it, please just…be quiet,” the cashier pleads.

Both of them blink at the cashier, Mingi’s mouth dropping open because he didn’t think they were _that_ annoying, but before he could register what just happened, Yunho takes the chance to shove his card into the card machine.

“It’s all good,” Yunho replies smoothly, sending a triumphant glance at Mingi. “I’ll also pay for one of those boxes of ice cream bars. Any kind you like as an apology.”

As if it were a trigger word, the cashier burst into tears right in front of them.

“Fuck, Yunho, what did you do!” Mingi panics, not knowing whether to move forward and comfort the crying man or step back and let him cry it out.

“I-I don’t know!” Yunho is panicking too, waving his arms and accidentally taking out his card prematurely while the machine protests.

They both hesitate between approaching the man or just letting him be and pretend nothing happened, but the meltdown is over as quickly as it starts, the cashier’s face flattening back into his tired expression after he takes a deep breath with snot and tears still running down his face. Mingi hands him a tissue he finds in his pocket, and the cashier takes it gratefully and blows his nose into it wetly before tossing it into the wastebasket behind him.

He clears his throat.

“Could you please insert your card again, sir? I don’t think the payment went through,” informs the worker with a hoarse voice.

Mingi takes this chance to stuff his card into the reader.

“Haha, bitch!” he cackles, winking as he points two finger guns at Yunho, who swats him away, and turns back to the cashier. “You! Go ahead and buy any ice cream or whatever you want!”

“A-are…You were serious about that?”

“Hell yeah we are. Yunho, tell him!” 

Mingi crosses his arm in front of his chest as Yunho clears his throat and steps up.

“It’s fine!” The cashier essentially yells, before nervously laughing at the duo’s taken aback look and lowering his tone again. “It’s fine. Thank you.”

“No problem kiddo,” Yunho affirms with a brilliant smile that just so catches the slowly rising rays of sunlight.

They exit the store with way too many items stacked up on their arms, Mingi balancing the espresso machine with a small hill of chips bags while Yunho holds his own with the rest of the stuff. Fortunately, their car is parked right in front of the entrance, and Yunho struggles a bit to pull the keys from Mingi’s pocket, but eventually unlocks the car. Mingi yells a farewell to the cashier as the automatic glass door closes, and the man lifts his hand a little as if it was too heavy to raise any higher. A satisfied smile settles onto Mingi’s face as he turns and follows Yunho, lugging the stuff into the trunk.

“Min, you might wanna hurry up, class starts in like, twenty,” Yunho calls from the front seat as he had already finish tossing the stuff into the back.

“Asshole, help me out instead of eating the gummies we just bought!”

“You got this,” Yunho cheers through a mouthful of sour peach rings. “I believe in you!”

“This motherfucker…” Mingi growls as he heaves the box, finally, into the trunk.

He opens the driver side door and plops into the car seat with a grumble, throwing his legs in a position where he could close the car door. Yunho dangles a peach ring in front of his lips with a sweet smile on his face, and Mingi settles upright and bats it away with a “humph”. He doesn’t expect Yunho to lean further over the center console and smile wider as the ring is pushed further into his face. Something stutters in his chest as Yunho’s face expands in his vision, his facade finally cracking when their noses are inches apart, and he opens up his mouth to let Yunho feed him the gummy.

“Now hurry,” Yunho says as he leans back into the passenger seat popping another sour ring into his mouth. “I think if I’m late one more time to literature Professor Lee will have my head.”

—————————————

“Hey, hey, hey!”

Mingi hears Yunho groan as their dorm door slams into the wall. He himself lets out a loud sigh as he sinks lower into the couch cushions.

“The fuck is up bitches!” Another voice that’s just as loud, if not louder, follows behind the first closely.

“Mingi, why did you have to give them a copy of our room key,” Yunho groans from underneath a pile of blankets on his end of the couch.

Mingi could barely hear him over the loud crash that sounds from the front door, and he jolts upright and rushes to the entrance hall because they _cannot_ have the R.A. come with complaints again.

Two familiar grinning faces stand innocently at the door, their hands crossed politely in front of them as they watch Mingi skid around the corner. He looks at the awfully proper way the two intruders are standing and decides that it’d be best to look for the damage caused rather than ask them because they wouldn't answer straight anyways. He scans the wall behind the door, which surprisingly holds up well from the impact that Mingi heard from the living room, but he freezes as he looks over the two.

A heavy-looking hunk of metal is laying sideways on the ground, and he blanches a little at the scratches evident on the white tiles of the entryway and the chunk that’s missing from the wood of the doorframe. Glaring down at the two, they smile sheepishly as San fiddles with his fingers and Wooyoung looks away while shuffling his feet. Mingi groans, already thinking up of every possible excuse he could use to avoid having to pay for the stupid old tiles of his dorm and the doorframe, or he could always get these two idiots to pay.

“I gave you the key for _emergencies_ , not for you to destroy the floor and disturb our neighbors,” Mingi huffs, “and wake Yunho up.”

“It was an emergency,” San says.

“We bought you a cow sculpture,” Wooyoung follows up, nodding.

It’s not in Mingi’s nature to be drawn towards violence, but he really wanted to throttle both of them on the spot, and he knows that Yunho would help him hide the bodies.

“Sorry Min.” A lower, calmer voice appears behind the two, who already forgot about Mingi and is trying to lift up the so-called cow sculpture from the ground. “They said Yunho looked sad and he loved cows.”

“I said I like beef, not cows!” Yunho calls from the living room, his voice still muffled by maybe a pillow.

“Live cow, dead cow, metal cow. Same difference!” Wooyoung calls back as he staggers to his feet with the cow sculpture sandwiched between him and San.

Mingi looks at Yeosang, but the other only shrugs as he takes off his shoes and walks in. The only thing that Mingi could do is to close the door and follow behind.

“Yunho!” San and Wooyoung cheer as they drop the sculpture to the ground _again_ and leap for the ball of blankets curled on the couch.

Mingi winces at the thud and thinks he hears the floorboards cracking a little. He hopes that the cow won’t cave his entire floor because he is definitely not paying for it.

An inhuman screech leaves Yunho as he is pounced on, fighting for his life as their two friends try to burrow under the covers. Yeosang ignores the scene and makes himself at home, going to the kitchen and opening up their fridge. 

“What are you here for again?” Mingi asks, because hell if he knows what goes on in his friends’ brains.

Sure, they’ve known each other for a while, as in freshman year to now, but somehow every time, all of them come up with new shit that somehow contradicts everything Mingi thought he knew about them. 

He thought San was timid and rather quiet when he first met him, but that fact slapped him in the face and called him stupid when he found San having a screaming match with his alarm clock. Yeosang is only a bit more talkative from he was when he sat next to Mingi in math, but the innocent image that Mingi built of Yeosang (especially with Hongjoong and Seonghwa talking how the blond was such an _angel_ ) shattered when he asked for help with moving a couch and the other merely looks him up and down and told him ‘with your height, I thought you’d have some muscle on you.’ And although Yeosang still helped him move the couch, Mingi couldn’t look him in the eye for two days. Wooyoung is not at all the intimidating person Mingi thought him to be, with his sharp features and almost deadly gaze glinting along with the multitude of piercings lining his ears. He’s more like the human embodiment of the wiggly air man in front of auto shops, flailing weirdly half the time, and if you get closer you can hear the obnoxious whirring of the generator giving the flappy man life. It’s the closest metaphor Mingi could ever match Wooyoung with, and he sighs as he hears the screeching in the living room.

“Can you all shut up? We have neighbors you know,” Mingi grumbles as he watches Yunho assault Wooyoung with jabs to the ribs. “And move the cow.”

“Jesus, what’s crawled up your butt?” San says, clambering off the couch and drapes himself over Mingi while smirking. “Or does baby Mingi want some attention too?”

Mingi turns and tackles San to the ground, wrestling him and tickling his sides. San yelps as he flails and tries to push Mingi off between giggles but to no avail.

“You guys are actual children,” comments Yeosang on the side as he comes out of the kitchen with a carton in his hands.

“Says you with the chocolate milk,” Wooyoung fires back as he wriggles away from Yunho’s grasp.

Yeosang chokes and flushes a bright red, hiding his face behind his hoodie sleeve as he coughs. 

“It’s called exquisite taste, asshole,” Yeosang rebukes after recovering, his face still a tint too red to brush aside as he settles down on the beanbag chair.

“Whatever you say, Yeosangie,” Wooyoung sings as he flops down onto the couch but misses and lands on the carpet instead.

Good thing the carpet is one of the things that Mingi and Yunho splurged on when they first got this room, the damn thing literally made of the softest stuff Mingi ever touched next to Yunho’s cheeks and maybe a kitten. 

Seeming to have given up even trying to make an effort to get on the couch, Wooyoung starfishes on the ground. Mingi stops attacking San with one last flick to the forehead before climbing up from the ground to squish next to Yeosang on the beanbag chair. The smaller grunts a bit but moves over so Mingi doesn’t crush him, and Mingi latches onto his side, half-spooning him.

“Why are you even here anyways?” Mingi snatches Yeosang’s milk and takes a huge gulp.

Yeosang smacks him in the arm and pulls the milk back in front of him, sipping from the straw but not taking back the box, letting Mingi hold it for him as if he was some sort of cup holder. Mingi would pull away if he could, but although shorter, Yeosang has some considerable strength in him that Yunho tells him is from “pent-up rage in small bodies,” only to have Yeosang hurling a textbook at him.

“Oh yeah, we’re having a party here,” San answers nonchalantly, climbing on the couch and laying on top of Yunho’s lap, who instinctively begins to comb through San’s hair.

Something coils in Mingi’s stomach as he looks at the two of them on the couch. Yunho is looking down at San with a smile on his face; the blinding one that always never fails to make Mingi’s heart skip a beat, and is objectively one of the loveliest smiles that Mingi has seen next to his own mother’s. San looks up at Yunho with a just-as-bright smile, his finger coming up and poking at Yunho’s cheeks. He clears his throat.

“Excuse me.” He could see Yeosang looking at him from his peripherals. “When did we decide that we’re going to have a party?”

“Oh yeah,” Yunho frowns, moving his hand away from San’s head, and the unusual emotion subsiding back into a barely perceptible simmering sitting at the pit of his stomach. “Why are you holding the party here of all places? Your dorm is bigger.”

Wooyoung shrugs from his place on the floor, so far being weirdly silent for a long period of time. “Sangie will kill us if we trash our place again.”

“I always have to clean after you guys,” retorts Yeosang, pulling Mingi’s arm over to take a sip from his milk again. “And I’m sure Jongho doesn’t like his room getting trashed either.”

“No shit he doesn’t,” Yunho says, snorting as he continues to comb through San’s hair. “These two are crazy when they throw parties, and Wooyoung always invites extras.”

“I’m sorry I have _friends_ ,” Wooyoung scoffs, sitting up to flip his hair sassily.

“There’s no way you’re going to invite people to a party at our place.”

“Well—” San pipes up, and Yunho immediately stops touching his hair to glare down at him. 

“I was just going to say that it’s just going to be us,” he pouts, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Don’t look at me like that.”

He removes himself from Yunho’s lap and moves himself to the floor, sitting sideways onto Wooyoung’s thighs, tucking his head under Wooyoung’s chin. Wooyoung just puts his arms up and adjusts the other so that he is comfortably seated. Mingi feels the odd knot in his chest disappear and frowns down in confusion, but he feels Yeosang release his wrist and take away the milk, so he pushes the feelings aside and moves to the couch to join Yunho.

As soon as he sits down and puts his legs onto Yunho’s lap, the doorbell rings. He groans, but doesn’t move, because he just settled into a comfortable position on the couch, and he doesn’t want Yunho to leave either. Yeosang is nice enough to stand up to get the door, still sucking on the carton of milk as he plods out of sight to the entrance hall.

“Dude, you know Yeosang apparently has the biggest crush on someone. I saw him the other day looking at his phone and like _smiling_ ,” Wooyoung whispers, leaning in as if he were close enough to any of them to actually whisper.

“It’s not like he doesn’t smile though,” Mingi notes, though he does have to admit that he is intrigued by the gossip. “He could just be, I don’t know, playing a game?”

“No, but it’s like _that smile_.” Wooyoung explains, as if that is any clearer.

“Ok, but who could be the person he has a crush on?” Yunho is invested in this too, as he leans down and actually whispers.

“No clue dude, but I’m pretty sure—”

“Kids, I bought the alcohol!”

Hongjoong chooses at that moment to walk into the living room lifting two way-too-big bottles of vodka over his head with a shopping bag dangling from one arm.

“Isn’t it too hot for a fur coat?” San points out, but his expression doesn’t change, because they were all used to it already.

“It’s never too hot to be fashionable,” tuts the older as he struts over like a middle-aged mother and sets the bottles on the table with a clunk.

“Is Hongjoong drunk already?” A breath brushes past Mingi’s ear as Yunho whispers to him, an odd shiver passing up his spine.

“I think his sleep deprivation is kicking in,” Mingi whispers back because for being a rather composed and studious music major, Hongjoong could go overboard with studying.

Plus, the older has a job in a retail store somewhere, and Mingi couldn’t imagine all the shit he has to go through.

“In case you’re wondering, he's sweating buckets under that coat,” comments a voice from the hallway.

Jongho steps into the living room with a half-smile on his face with Seonghwa appearing next him, both of them carrying grocery bags that look like they shouldn’t have been done in one trip. Seonghwa is only carrying one bag while Jongho is lifting two, and Mingi catches Yeosang’s eyes as he walks in with another bag in hand and sends a look at him equal parts inquiring and suggestive. Yeosang glares at him but without much malice, and he silently lets go of the issue, but not before sending a suspicious glance back while the other sets his bag on the ground next to the others.

Snacks spill out all over the floor as the weight of the last bag tips it over. They really shouldn’t have bought all those snacks this morning, Mingi thinks, but then he remembers that they had already gone through half the snacks somehow and didn’t have any money to buy any food until either of their next paychecks.

“And how do you know he’s sweaty, huh? Been hugging him? Kissing him? Sucking—” Wooyoung grins suggestively and throws a barrage of questions without mercy.

“NO! Oh my god,” Jongho splutters, looking flustered as he kicks Wooyoung in the back. “I wouldn’t…do _that_ —”

“Wouldn’t what? I meant sucking up to him, but I guess you are thinking about—” Wooyoung has the widest shit-eating grin on his face, as if he knew what Jongho would think, and he most likely did and said it just to tease the younger.

Jongho’s expression sours substantially, with murder beginning to flicker in his eyes. Wooyoung laughs loudly, with no sense of self preservation as he throws his head back boisterously and almost knocking it on the coffee table. Looking at a WWE smackdown about to happen in their rather easily breakable dorm space, Mingi debates on whether or not to stop them from destroying the place or to watch the events unfold because he really needed to spice up his Insta story.

“No fights before the alcohol,” Seoghwa interrupts, digging into one of the shopping bags on the ground before fishing out the item he’s looking for with a small “ah”.

He turns and tosses it in the direction of Yeosang, who catches it and turns it over in his hands. Mingi catches a glimpse of a familiar brand name of chocolate milk on the side of it, and the rising suspicion from before culminates as Yeosang flushes a little at the action. Yeosang makes a face at him when he wiggles his eyebrows, and after moments of silent threats and telepathic conversations, defeat bleeds into Yeosang’s expression as he wordlessly promises Mingi to tell him later, and Mingi has to hold back a whoop of victory.

“Done giving goo-goo eyes at Yeosang?” A snort is heard beside him, and he turns just in time to see Yunho staring at him with his face unusually serious.

“I’m what?” Mingi sputters, jumping to defend himself. “I wasn’t given any eyes at Sangie?”

Yunho snorts and pushes Mingi’s legs off of him. A sense of betrayal and confusion flashes through Mingi as he looks at Yunho and tries to figure out what he’s done wrong.

“Sangie has a crush and for all we know it could be you,” retorts Yunho hotly, tucking his knees to his chest.

The answer only serves to give Mingi more confusion because for all he knows, there’s no correlation between Yeosang’s crush and him talking to Yeosang telepathically other than he is probably going to find out who it was sometime tonight.

“Wait.” 

_Oh fuck._

“What is this about me having a crush on someone?” Yeosang is glaring at Yunho, and then down at Wooyoung, who laughs nervously while discreetly shifting San off his lap and scooting behind him.

“Ah…um…” Yunho is at an absolute loss for words as he realizes his mistake and faces impending homicide.

Mingi snickers because it’s always fun to watch Yeosang, precious angel as he is, threaten murder, especially when it’s not directed towards him. Yunho seems so oddly serious about Yeosang’s possible crush on him, that Mingi almost believed him, but blurting out anything right now would only get him into deeper shit and possibly getting his limbs removed by not one, but two of his friends.

Just as he feels his back pocket for his phone, a pillow flies by his head at a velocity that could’ve taken it off. He and Yunho yelp almost simultaneously, shielding their faces just in case a second is hurled at them again. Peeking through his fingers, Mingi can see Yeosang pick up another pillow that Hongjoong (that _traitor_ ) passes him, and he sends a look at Yunho that hopefully conveys: _We may be dying, but at least we’re dying together bro_. Yunho seems to understand it well enough, and they could see Yeosang moving in closer and closer with the pillow. Screwing his eyes shut, Mingi braces for the impending whack to the top of his head that entailed his death, but when he hears the sound, he realizes he isn’t collapsed on the floor halfway to his dying breath. Lifting his head, he witnesses Yeosang using both hands to smack the pillow down on Wooyoung’s head.

Wooyoung screams and scrambles off the floor, running around the living room as Yeosang chases him with the pillow raised and ready. Really, they were gliding, as their socks slipped against the wood, and once or twice Yeosang almost tripped over the metal cow that still hasn’t been moved. After the third time, this time having Yeosang stub his toe and fall to the ground in pain, Seonghwa steps in, grabbing the laughing and still-running Wooyoung by the back of his collar.

“Maybe you should stop running before you destroy Yunho and Mingi’s dorm room,” Seonghwa suggests with a smile that stretches eerily across his face, his words sounding more like a warning more than anything.

“Yeah! And move that…that metal…thing? On the ground? What the fuck is that?” Hongjoong gets off his seat and crouches in front of the cow, squinting at it while poking with a tentative finger.

“It’s a cow,” replies San, “Wooyoung and I bought it for Yunho ‘cause he said he likes cows.”

“Beef!” The mentioned squawks indignantly as he finally recovers from his near-death experience moments ago. “I said I like beef!”

Deciding to ignore the new argument already brewing in front of him, Mingi inches off the couch to grab the shot glasses from the cupboard along with a jug of orange juice from the fridge. Coming back into the living room, he sees Jongho popping some literal popcorn into his mouth as he watches San on top of Hongjoong for some reason and Wooyoung and Yunho assaulting Yeosang while Seonghwa is trying to move the metal cow by himself. He doesn’t question it and puts everything onto the coffee table, pouring a shot glass of juice for Jongho, who seems too invested into everyone else’s shenanigans to do so himself. 

Jongho beams at him when the shot glass is nudged against his hand and thanks Mingi, making Mingi smile back and ruffle his hair endearingly. He then hears Seonghwa grunting with effort behind him, seemingly determined to get the cow out of the way for some reason. 

The older manages to carry the sculpture a few steps, each time dropping it and wheezing his lungs out for a full minute before trying to lift it again. Mingi doesn’t know what kind of material the metal cow is made of, but knowing San and Wooyoung, they probably harassed that art major that Wooyoung knew (and Mingi forgot the name of) to make them this thing, and passing by the art room every so often, Mingi knew he saw a huge chunk of metal that used to be the door missing.

Cow finally moved out of the way, in which Mingi provided no support, Seonghwa collapses on the floor dramatically and gasps as if he’s taking his last dying breath. Mingi is kind enough to prematurely open the vodka and pour a little into the shot glass before filling the rest with orange juice. He hands it to Seonghwa, who takes it and gulps it down like water, and coughs because he drank it when laying down.

“Hey!” Hongjoong yells while trying to wrangle San away from him. “No drinking the alcohol without me!”

“Already? What the hell?” Wooyoung climbs off of Yeosang and grabs a shot glass for himself. “Teeequila!”

“It’s vodka,” Jongho corrects through sips of orange juice and bites of popcorn.

“Same thing.” Wooyoung waves him off and dumps the vodka like ketchup, spilling a great deal of it onto the table.

“Don’t you _dare_ get a drop of my fucking carpet or I will skin you with your own toes,” Yunho yells as he dives under the coffee table with paper towels and saves the carpet from being stained by a few drops.

Wooyoung just laughs as he throws back a shot and chokes because of the burn. Mingi doesn’t know what he expected, but he begins laughing with the rest of his friends as they watch Wooyoung pound on his chest and pour some orange juice down his throat to relieve the pain. Of course, Yeosang comes up from behind him and smacks him in the back mid-waterfall and he chokes, orange juice spurting up like a fountain and running down his face and neck. Yunho is dodging left and right trying to catch every drop of orange he can see, and surprisingly doing so, not running into anything so far. Out of pity, Mingi tugs at the carpet, crawling underneath everyone to pull it out and roll it up, leaning it against the wall to prevent Yunho from having an aneurysm over a single crumb getting on the fur. The party is in full-swing now.

Soon enough, half of the group is wasted.

Hongjoong is the first to pass out, laying on the beanbag chair and having Mingi separate him from his fur coat due to how much he’s sweating. For being one of the older ones, Mingi never fails to be surprised by how terrible Hongjoong’s alcohol tolerance is. Yeosang’s isn’t any better, as he is on the couch, lazily mumbling something about kittens and eating chicken while playing with the tassels of the cushions. 

Wooyoung and Yunho had a stupid drinking contest and both of them downed way to many straight vodka shots to be alive (but Yunho won, unsurprisingly, only to be reduced to the clingy drunk state Mingi has seen so many times but ten times _worse_ ). San is just as drunk though, wobbling around and giggling at everything.

Mingi surprisingly didn’t feel like drinking tonight, instead filling his glass with orange juice and sitting with Jongho. Seonghwa also sits by nursing his own strawberry drink that he bought from the store, lounging elegantly on a gaming chair pulled from Yunho’s room. 

“Let’s play truth or dare,” slurs San, giggling at nothing again.

A chorus of “yes”s comes from Wooyoung and Yunho, and surprisingly even Jongho joins in happily, lifting both arms like a toddler waiting to get picked up. Mingi exchanges glances with Seonghwa, wondering if having any kind of dare would be smart in this situation, but Hongjoong suddenly shoots up like a zombie, scaring the crap out of him, and like any normal person would, he screams.

In his defense, anyone would’ve screamed just as loud if they saw someone shoot up back straight and with blank eyes.

Seonghwa shushes him loudly gesturing next door as if they weren’t already causing way too much of a ruckus, and Mingi throws an empty chip bag at him.

“Minnie~ let’s play,” Yunho whines as he throws himself onto Mingi’s lap.

There’s something about a flushed Yunho looking up at him and begging for him to have some fun that stops him from just calling it a night and going back to his room. It’s obvious his best friend is flat drunk, eyes unfocused and a smile sloshing around on his face, but the pout and the childish tugging at his sleeve forced him into sitting in the already-forming truth or dare circle. He supposed that it’s a milder change in pace for what would normally ensue.

It did start off ok, all dumb dares that would normally happen at a high school sleepover, like prank calling a pizza place and duct taping someone’s hands together. Yeosang had to stuff the most flavored marshmallows he can into his mouth for a round, resulting in videos of him drooling green sticky substances all over his chin in Mingi and Seonghwa’s camera roll. San had to do a handstand while kissing a person of his choice’s cheeks, in which he chose Seonghwa and collapsed halfway to the first kiss. Seonghwa chose truth, as one of the only sober minds in the circle, and had to confess to accidentally watching porn when he was nine years old; his face remained the same shade of red the rest of the night.

Mingi himself chose dare, because he wasn’t a pussy.

He ended up standing on the balcony of their dorm and yelling lyrics to Fergalicious, only to have a platform boot being thrown at him from somewhere below him. Following the dare, Hongjoong had to dance to music that all of them chose, and threw it back to Caillou with his fur coat draped over his shoulders. Jongho doesn’t seem drunk at all, but he chose a dare, which he had to be subjected to an hour of teasing and a bunch of pictures taken of him in Mingi’s dino onesie that he used for Halloween almost every year (one year he dressed up as Loki because Yunho _really_ wanted to be Thor and he wanted to match), and Mingi makes sure that he takes a video of Jongho pretending to roar just so he could threaten blackmail later.

The night went on with more stupid dares and surprising truths (Yeosang said he preferred to spend a day with Hongjoong than spend it with Wooyoung and Wooyoung rioted), some more detrimental to their pride than others. The energy from before seems to slowly die down as people begin to fall asleep, starting with Jongho slumping over against Yunho and followed by Yeosang yawning cutely and curling up like a cat at the end of the couch. The rest were still full of energy though, gibberish exchanges and raucous laughter filling the living room.

“Last dare!” Seonghwa raises his voice over the commotion. 

Hongjoong agrees loudly, though Mingi isn’t sure he really knew what Seonghwa was talking about. He didn’t sound drunk, but Mingi recalls the shorter tripping over his own feet while shifting to a different sitting position. Plus it wouldn’t be like Hongjoong to sober up that quickly anyways.

A collective whine of “no”s rings out from the living room as San and Wooyoung hurl themselves on the ground in a tantrum. San kicks his legs up and throws a cushion somewhere across the room. 

“Be quiet!” Seonghwa hisses as he blocks the pillow from hitting Yeosang on the couch. 

The younger behind him continues sleeping peacefully, unaware of all the commotion and the projectile heading straight towards his face. Jongho, however, lets out a sound of distress, and Yunho nestles him back into the position from before. Mingi has to restrain himself from cooing. The loud duo ceases their yelling at Seonghwa’s terrifying gaze, meekly nodding their heads and agreeing to do one more dare and then end the night.

“Last dare goes to Yunho then!” Wooyoung points at the tall brown-haired male with drunken vivor. 

“Yeah! Yeah! He didn’t get many today!” San is also pointing, but his finger is miles away from where his actual goal was.

“I’ll pick dare!” Yunho chirps, eyes curving into a smile. If he had a tail, it would be wagging wildly by now.

“No!” Mingi cuts in, there’s no way a drunk Yunho and a dare would be a good idea, even if he did look like a cheerfully sober puppy. “He’ll do a truth.”

“You’re no fun,” pouts Wooyoung, almost falling face flat onto the floor as he misses his chin with his hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” echoes Yunho, wagging a finger at Mingi.

“It’s for your own safety, stupid!” Mingi whacks Yunho’s arm, but winces at the strength of it.

Yunho makes a face at Mingi, not at all minding his arm, and turns his back to him, pouting, even though his hand is tightly gripping Mingi’s own. The rest begin discussing a question to give Yunho, voicing probably private thoughts out loud and yelling way too loudly for just trying to communicate with the person next to them. Mingi hopes that he wasn’t as bad when he was drunk.

Seonghwa is doing his best to quiet them, but to no avail; So he ends up prying Yunho’s hand away from Mingi and placing it over Jongho’s ear while he himself climbs on the couch to pillow Yeosang and cover the younger’s ears. 

“Yunho…likes…Mmm” Yeosang mumbles as he adjusts his position on Seonghwa's lap, turning to face and Hongjoong reaches over fondly to ruffle his hair, almost missing the boy by several inches.

“Right! Good question, Sangie!” Wooyoung whoops as he whirled on Yunho again. “Do you like someone?”

All the attention becomes focused on Yunho, with eyes prying and curious. Mingi snaps his head to the side, curious to see if his best friend did have a crush, though Yunho tells him everything so he should be the first to know anyways. He suspects that it’s Yeosang trying to drunkenly get revenge anyways for blurting out that he had a crush. To his surprise, Yunho refuses to even look him in the eye, instead opting to look at his lap instead. 

“…Yeah.” Yunho looks embarrassed even with the intoxicated blush decorating his face. His lips are loose from the alcohol, but there seems to be some kind of shame and fear lacing his voice.

“You like someone?” Hongjoong yells, as he clasps his hands together with his eyes shining.

“Like… _Like_ like?” San adds excitedly, getting way too close in Yunho’s personal space for Mingi to feel comfortable.

The brunette nods. 

Mingi feels like he’s at a middle school slumber party, and an uncomfortable pubescent awkwardness suffocates him as he felt Yunho’s shoulder leaning against his own.

“Who is it? Who is it?”. 

“That’s another question! Good night!” Standing abruptly, Yunho quickly makes his exit to his room, leaving Mingi to catch Jongho and make sure the youngest didn’t slam his head against the floor. His walk seems sober, but Mingi could only think about the confused betrayal beginning to crawl in his stomach.

“Alright, you guys are way too fucking loud, so you’re either going to go back to your rooms or stay still until Mingi and I can get you some sleeping stuff,” Seonghwa hisses, after a moment of awkward silence.

“Yes sir~” replies the rest in slurred harmony before San tips over onto the ground.

“Sannie!” Wooyoung wails as he drops to his knees next to the other. “He’s dead!”

“Someone call the ambulance!” Hongjoong cries, kneeling and shaking the daylights out of the poor “dead” boy.

San is still passed out somehow as Hongjoong shakes him while Wooyoung is starting to cry real tears. Mingi is back to looking at Seonghwa and asking him how the hell to deal with this.

“You take Jongho to, I dunno, your room? Or Yunho’s and let him sleep there. I’ll go grab some blankets or something for the rest of them.”

Mingi nods and moves himself under Jongho, lifting him half onto his back and adjusting it so that he’s piggybacking the younger. Jongho grunts softly in protest as he is moved to the bedroom and shifts around on Mingi’s back, almost sliding off. Mingi laughs lightly and bounces him back to the center, quietly cracking open the door to his room. Setting the younger down on his bed, he pulls the blanket under Jongho’s chin and tucks him in after slipping off his trucker jacket. Jongho makes a noise of contentment as he nudges his head against Mingi’s hand that's running through his hair. Pressing a light kiss to the top of the youngest’s head, Mingi pulls out some Advil from his drawer and leaves it for Jongho in the morning.

Walking back out to the living room, Mingi sees Seonghwa standing in the middle of the room with utter defeat painted on his face. Wooyoung is clinging onto the older’s legs as he wails about a dead San, who is actually lying comfortably on the ground inside a sleeping bag. Seonghwa is trying his best to explain to the black-haired boy that San will be okay in the morning, but Wooyoung refuses to calm down. Hongjoong, however, is gently petting Yeosang on the couch under a bunch of blankets they’re sharing and softly mumbling “kitty” while dozing off. 

“Mingi, can you help or something?” Seonghwa whisper-yells as he tries to push down Wooyoung, who is now attempting to climb him like a tree.

“Ten dollar bet that this will go viral,” Mingi laughs as he takes out his phone to film.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Seonghwa growls, shaking the leg in another attempt to get Wooyoung off.

It takes ten minutes for Seonghwa to finally put Wooyoung to bed, shaking off the other with the promise that he will go to heaven with San right after threatening to murder him if he doesn’t let go.

With everyone finally settling in for the night, the two sober ones release a sigh of relief. They split up the living room and begin picking up trash and sweeping respectively, silence comfortably wrapping around them after a night of noise. The sounds of late night cars and students returning from a club can be heard beyond the curtains as the soft brushing of the broom against their dorm floor mingles with it to create a calming illusion of a forest in the deep night; If, of course, the birds sounded like high pitched giggles of drunk college girls. Mingi huffs at the thought and bends down to pick up a chip bag when Seonghwa starts talking.

“You know, you don’t have to feel bad because Yunho didn’t tell you he had a crush,” The oldest remarks as he reaches under the sofa with the broom.

“He tells me everything though,” Mingi blurts out, “he used to tell me everything. And I don’t know if it’s like he doesn’t want to tell me or hasn’t had the time to tell me. It’s not like I want to push him to tell me but…why didn’t he tell me?”

Seonghwa smiles crookedly and nods, and Mingi feels childish in the moment, shame flooding his face as he thinks back to what he said.

“I know it sounds stupid but—”

“No,” the oldest cuts in, “I get it. Looks like insecurity is really kickin’ your ass right now huh?”

“I mean— yeah, I guess so.”

Mingi wrings his hands. So maybe he does feel like he’s being replaced. Just a little bit.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Seonghwa hums as he picks out a sock from under the couch, scrunching his nose in disgust. “I’m sure he’ll confess within time.”

“What if he confesses and I don’t get to spend time with him anymore!” Mingi suddenly panics, realizing that he is inches away from being second favorite after whoever Yunho had a crush on.

Seonghwa just looks at him weirdly before launching the sock at his face.

“I’m serious!” He says as he shakes off the sock as quickly as he could, feeling the weird shivers already crawling down his face from where the sock made contact.

“I’m so disappointed that you are this once,” sighs Seonghwa as he continues to sweep. “You’ll probably know soon enough though, so don’t worry.”

Mingi nods, feeling already a bit relaxed at Seonghwa’s words, but there’s still a persistent coiling in his stomach whenever he thinks of Yunho’s crush. Are they tall? Short? Are they handsome? Or pretty? Cute? Or maybe a mixture of all three? Did they have perfect lips and a slim figure? Or maybe they’re really fit and jacked up? He growls as he stamps on the pedal of their trash can and the lid hits the side of the counter with a clang.

Seonghwa leaves almost immediately after cleaning, telling him he’ll come back tomorrow morning since there’s really no more space for anyone else in the tiny living room. Mingi walks him to the front door and is pulled into a hug, with a firm pat on his back following, and then Seonghwa is gone. He exhales, running his fingers through his hair as he hears snoring from behind him, and he turns off the lights and heads to Yunho’s room for the night.

He knocks lightly, in case the other is still awake, and to his surprise, Yunho cracks open the door and peers out with one eye. Seeing that it was just Mingi, the door is opened slightly wider to reveal both hooded eyes and a nest of brown hair as Yunho let’s him in, almost tripping over his own feet as he does so. Mingi catches Yunho by the wrist and slowly slides in the crack between, closing the door lightly behind him as his friend leans heavily against his shoulder. The other’s eyes are innocent and hazy as he stumbles against Mingi while being led back to bed.

Helping him lay down and pulling the covers over him, Mingi gently takes in the way the moon envelopes Yunho’s cheeks in a soft, green glow. His hood is pulled over his head as his hair flops into his eyes, and he is looking past Mingi up at the glow-in-the-dark stars they stuck up there together. He’s slurring something unintelligible as Mingi stares at him, and reaches out his hands like a toddler. Complying, Mingi slowly shifts to lie down beside Yunho, letting the clingy nature of his drunk friend wrap him in their warmth. 

Yunho is still pretty (objectively) with a drunken flush on his face, and Mingi is so unnervingly close that he could see Yunho’s eyelashes fluttering with each breath he takes. His chest is tying knots with his lungs and making it hard to breath as he feels Yunho’s breath fan out across his collarbones. 

_It’s just the alcohol_ , Mingi convinces himself, _the alcohol in the air_. And he may not be a biology major, but he knows bad stuff in the air causes bad stuff in your lungs when you breathe it in. Basic science.

“Mingi?” Yunho whispers as he burrows closer to Mingi with his words melting together and sticking like honey. 

Mingi hums in response, not knowing if words could do any good at this point, and listens for Yunho to finish his sentence. All he hears is alcohol-scented breath slowly deepening beside him as the light of the glow-in-the-dark stars flicker with each passing of the clouds over the moon, soon realizing that Yunho had fallen asleep. The solid weight of someone laying against him is comforting, he realizes as he continues to wait; The thought of someone next to him is comforting. Especially if it’s Yunho, his brain supplies helpfully, and he agrees because that _is_ his best friend.

He groans as Yunho takes it upon himself to place his whole weight onto his torso and crush him underneath. Straining under the weight, he pats Yunho’s back affectionately and then throws him back into his part of the double bed, which wasn’t that much off of him at all, but he could at least properly take a breath now. 

Yunho makes a noise akin to a whimper and stirs lightly, eventually just wrapping his arms around Mingi’s and stilling once more. Mingi winces at the drool gathering on his sleeves, but still smiles at the way Yunho curls against him, eventually falling asleep soon after with the deep, even breaths contained in the room lulling him to unconsciousness.

—————————————

“We are holding an intervention!” San yells one afternoon, weeks after the party, and everyone looks up at him.

“For what?” Hongjoong asks, between bites of his lunch.

“For Yunho’s crush! And maybe Yeosang’s too,” San responds, nodding his head importantly.

Mingi blinks. Seonghwa grunts and returns back to his bowl of noodles.

“Don’t you ignore me!” San huffs, “I’m serious y’know?”

“And you’re going to get yourself killed,” mumbles Jongho behind his chopsticks as he picks at his sushi.

Mingi could only agree. Although Yunho is about as terrifying as a giant golden retriever, Yeosang has the full capability to destroy someone’s pride in a sentence, and no one would be wild enough to mess with him except for Wooyoung. He couldn’t pencil the amount of times he actually feared for his life when Yeosang shot him that _look_ , and he chalks it up to one of the scariest experiences next to Seonghwa going ballistic. It’s always the quiet ones.

San opts to ignore Jongho’s sound warning and details some elaborate plans of escape in case they do catch on, and Mingi has to turn around and make sure that Wooyoung and the two topics of interest are still getting their food.

“Ok, so let’s focus,” San continues while pulling out a notebook. “I want you all to list possible people they could have a crush on before Wooyoung can’t distract them anymore.”

“You got him to _distract_ them?” Hongjoong sputters, choking on his sandwich and grabbing at the drink Seonghwa passes him. “So you can find out who they like?”

“It’s solidarity, my good brother,” San replies, tapping his notebook with a pen. “They need to get some.”

“I’m pretty sure Yeosang definitely got some—” Jongho comments, words muffled slightly with his sushi. 

Seonghwa jumps up with noodles still halfway in his mouth and splattering soup everywhere and chokes, this time having Hongjoong pass him back the drink.

“He WHAT?” Seonghwa forces out after chugging half the bottle.

“Yeah, he dated this guy a while back and talked about it with me sometimes,” The youngest says while wiping at his face in disgust.

“You didn’t think to tell us about it?” San squints at him while leaning in with his notebook in hand.

“Why would I?” Jongho shrugs, “It’s not my story to tell.”

A collective groan passes around the table as everyone slumps back into their seat. As much as Mingi would love to have heard about it from Yeosang too, Jongho is probably the only one in their group who knew how to keep any kind of secrets; Not even Seonghwa can lie properly when it comes to crushes, because he thinks pining is stupid and will drop way too obvious hints to the person of interest. 

“I fucking hate it when he’s right,” grumbles Hongjoong as he takes another bite of his sandwich.

Mingi looks over his bento box to see Seonghwa swallow down his noodles viciously. If spending years with the older told him anything, Mingi could probably say with eighty-percent accuracy that Seonghwa is probably hurt that Yeosang didn’t think to tell them anything, specifically him.

“That aside,” San clears his throat and sits back, pulling out a pair of glasses. “Potential crushes, go.”

“That guy in Yeosang’s chem class, Yeonjun, I think? I’m not sure but they hang out a lot,” Mingi recalls tapping his chopsticks against his chin.

San looks gleeful when he jots it down, a grin splitting his face and making him look more like he’s planning a hit list rather than taking down notes to help Yunho or Yeosang. “Heard he’s a hottie, perfect.” 

“Yunho hangs out with this Leedo guy from his maths class,” Hongjoong adds right after.

_Oh._

Maybe that’s why Yunho has been coming back to the dorm later and later recently. Mingi feels a disgusting twist in his stomach at the revelation. He’s never heard of any “Leedo” guy from Yunho, and he sure as hell didn’t know they hang out. He can’t list the amount of times he’s seen Yunho smile radiantly at his phone at random times of the day, not that he was actively staring at Yunho, it was just coincidence that whenever he happened to pass his eyes over the other, he would be grinning away and typing on his screen. God, it feels like he’s sharing some emotional connection with Seonghwa right now.

“I love this list already,” declares San, writing fervently into the notebook with his tongue poking out in concentration. “They’re both hot from what I’ve heard.”

“A girl confessed to Yunho the other day,” Jongho butts in, “don’t think it’s her though, ‘cause I saw Yunho looking like a kicked puppy while talking to her.”

The knife is twisting deeper into his gut. Of course Yunho didn’t think to tell him about that either. He looks down and spears a carrot on his chopstick.

“He talks about Mingi the most though,” Seonghwa says suddenly, his expression unreadable as he is half buried into his bowl.

The pencil scratching at the notebook paper pauses. San looks up curiously and his gaze slides between Seonghwa and Mingi, even though the both of them have their heads practically glued to their food. He hums approvingly. Mingi is too occupied glaring daggers into the side of Seognhwa’s face to notice what San does next because for one, he didn’t know what to say, only that it really had nothing to do with the crush list San is compiling; He sure as hell didn’t want Seonghwa to know that Yunho talking about him did, in fact, warm over the odd feeling in his gut a little.

“Yeosang also talked to, like, two girls and a guy last week too,” Jongho supplies again, and Mingi wanted to kiss the life out of him for taking the topic off of Yunho. 

Seonghwa, however, just sets down his chopsticks and drinks heavily from a bottle he swipes off the table, which just so happened to be Wooyoung’s drink, and Mingi could just hear Wooyoung complain about it for the latter half of the day and more. San just pens something down into his notebook with another lilting hum.

“This is perfect,” San announces while holding up his completed list that no one else could see but him. “Let’s figure out their crushes from ther—” 

Someone clears their throat behind him. 

San’s eyes widen as he almost drops his notebook, fumbling for a few seconds in the air before tugging it to his chest and hiding it. Mingi is quite sure he pales a little and observes everyone’s face turning a shade lighter than usual; even Jongho, who doesn’t stop chewing on his sushi has his eyes darting up nervously from his box. He takes a courageous gamble to look behind San, only to see Yunho standing there with his arms crossed with Yeosang tapping his foot and glaring at them next to him.

“May I know what you guys are talking about?” Yeosang asks, smiling sweetly at the sudden stillness that falls over the table.

His question is greeted with guilty silence as everyone just turns back to their food, and San climbs off the table back to his seat. Mingi begins to shovel food into his mouth, discreetly hoping that both Yunho and Yeosang will drop the topic if nobody responds. The others seem to think the same too as they all return to their meals and chew with their mouths shut like civilized, _normal_ human beings.

It’s all going well (he thinks) until he almost chokes on the gigantic spoonful of rice he shoves into his mouth, and he does his best to muffle his cough only to have a tiny fountain of rice spraying onto his lap. Hongjoong smacks him under the table and he smacks the older back.

“Since none of you want to answer, I suppose this notebook can go,” Yunho says lightly after another beat of silence while snatching the notebook from San’s hands and ready to rip out the page.

“W-wait—”

“Sanniiee,” a loud voice yells, and Wooyoung appears, sweating heavily and panting while he leans on his knees “They—they’re going to come back in a moment, sor…sorry I couldn’t keep them distracted long enough…”

Encountering the murderous expression on both Yunho and Yeosang’s face, his words drift off as he laughs nervously, straightening and smiling crookedly while making a detour around them and ducking to the very end of the bench.

“If only you took notes like this in class, San,” Yeosang comments while scanning over the list briefly. “Don’t think you need my notes for math anymore, huh?”

San chokes on his spinach in what Mingi would assume to be out of pure terror because god knows no one but Yeosang can stay awake during the cursed class.

“The only thing I’m glad about this list is that you assumed I could be slightly gay,” the blond continues, as if he hadn’t just laid down the most threatening sentence in front of San. “I am, in fact, fully gay thank you very much.”

“Hmm, same here,” Yunho adds on leaning over Yeosang to read the list. “And—” he pauses, doing a double take on the list. “A—ahem, well I do think Leedo is hot. Oh, and what this about W—”

“DON’T!” San shrieks as he snatches the notebook away from them.

Yeosang tries to snatch it back, but San is quick to abandon his food and cross over the bench. His arms move so quickly he smacks Jongho across the face, crushing a California roll against his cheek. The yelling once again ceases as Jongho looks up at him with a murderous smile as clumps of avocado drop off his face onto the table. Mingi moves slightly away from Jongho, already shivering at the aura surrounding him.

“I’ll give you a three second head start.”

San pales and immediately sprints off, tripping over the bench as he goes. Yunho and Yeosang run after him while Jongho wipes off the avocado with a napkin, taking a deep breath before chasing after him with speed that Mingi notes to be “incredibly predatory,” and he makes a mental reminder to never piss off Jongho.

While they’re running around, Mingi looks over at Yunho’s playful (and very murderous) expression as he lunges towards San. _So he thinks Leedo is hot, huh?_ He huffs as he stuffs a tempura into his mouth. 

It’s not like he doesn’t want his best friend to not be happy or anything, but the thought of Yunho being with this “Leedo” made him feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t even matter if it is Leedo that’s taking him out on a date, that goes for anyone that wanted to ask Yunho out. What if they treated Yunho badly and Yunho just didn’t know about it? Not that Mingi’s saying Yunho is not observant or anything, but he knows that the other has the tendency to think the best of everyone, and he didn’t want Yunho to get hurt.

Suddenly, an idea flashes into his head.

Hypothetically, if he were to take Yunho out on a date, like a proper one where it’s actually enjoyable and fun, he might be able to protect Yunho somehow. It wouldn’t be awkward, hopefully, as he could just abduct Yunho at any time of day and bring them out for a day of shopping and food; pretty much what they normally did on a free weekend when neither of them had any projects. It’d be real simple if he just asked, something that’s not stupid but also straightforward. Something that’s intelligent and well thought out. Something that definitely shouldn’t be—

“Yunho, we’re going on a fucking date.”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, the whole table falls into silence. 

What had just been blurted out of his mouth slowly begins to process in his brain as he stands with his hands slammed down on top of the picnic table. His eyes widen and his face begins burning when he looks up in a panic, noticing the red that’s already beginning to bleed into the tips of Yunho’s ears. Yunho is looking at him with shock and some other emotion that Mingi doesn’t dare look too closely into. Not that he was embarrassed or anything, but suppose the ground were to open up right now, Mingi thinks he would definitely jump into it.

“Like a date where we just fuck or like just a fucking date?”

Mingi chokes at Yunho’s spitfire answer breaking through his panic, whipping his head around. Yunho’s ears are blazing as he covers his mouth in horror, subsequently letting go of San and having the other scramble away with his life. He begins stuttering incohesively, making weird gestures and expressions as he tries to form a single word. In the end, the tall brunette gives up and sinks to the ground hiding his face in his knees and covering both ears with his hands while Mingi gapes like a fish, not knowing how to process anything that just happened. The table is surrounded by another bout of stunned silence only to be broken by a particularly ugly wheeze from Yeosang.

“You guys are dumb fucks,” Seonghwa quips, while Yeosang is dying behind him.

Their friends begin collapsing over each other in laughter, and Mingi glares at the older because he for sure _knows_ he may be stupid sometimes, and now being an exact example of his said stupid moments, but he didn’t need to hear that right now. Seonghwa just continues laughing and flips him off.

“Oh, so Mingi’s going to be the bold one huh,” teases Yeosang as he pauses from his laughing fit, his voice still a bit hoarse, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“I—I mean this is just to make sure that Yunho knows what a good date would be like. I’m not—I’m not trying to do anything ok?” Mingi defends, already seeing all the scheming grins showing on his friends’ faces.

“Sure,” Hongjoong guffaws, “like you wouldn’t want to tap that. Yunho’s got some nice cake on him.”

The table is thrown into hysterics at that, and Yunho hisses from his position crouching on the ground, looking up with a beet red face to glare at Hongjoong before meeting Mingi’s gaze and hiding in his knees again. Mingi just coughs and averts his gaze.

“Awww, look at little Minki and Yunie getting all shy,” coos Wooyoung as he grins mischievously while stealing a bite of meat from San’s plate while the other was laughing only to have his hand noticed and smacked away.

“Oh come on,” Mingi groans while willing his face to cool down. “I just want to make sure he knows what’s good date would be like. It’s not like I’m taking him away from his crush or anything.”

Seonghwa almost immediately stops laughing and stares at him as if he were stupid, but Mingi just ignores him this time, gathering the weird coils in the stomach and pushing them down so that he could peer at Yunho and gauge his reaction. After a deep inhale, Yunho finally recovers and straightens, his ears still a tint too pink. He just nods with a smile, with his grin a bit too heavy but fortunately showing no signs of disgust by the thought, before making his way to sit next to Mingi. 

The others are still laughing, Wooyoung making kissing noises while wrapping himself around Jongho while the youngest is pushing him away with a screech. Hongjoong is outlining the perfect date to the rest, talking about some things that Mingi really did not want to repeat or think about. Seonghwa and Yeosang are whispering at the side though, their gazes darting up every once in a while towards Mingi and Yunho’s direction and making Mingi squirm under the pressure. Cheeks burning again with awkwardness, he leans to the side towards Yunho to whisper as softly as he can.

“I’ll uh— I’ll talk to you about the details back to the dorm because these fuckers will never shut up about it.”

Yunho nods in affirmation and moves forward to steal a bite of his katsudon, smiling mischievously while tugging on Mingi’s chopsticks. Huffing in faux annoyance, Mingi ignores the weird swirling giddy joy in his stomach as he chuckles and pushes Yunho’s face away.

—————————————

Right now Mingi is in a dilemma.

He has three minutes until the time he has to arrive at Yunho’s house and he’s stuck between choosing a pink themed bouquet with tulips or a pretty yellow one with sunflowers. It really shouldn’t matter that much, but he forgets momentarily what Yunho’s favorite color was and he really wants the date-but-not-really to be perfect.

Checking his phone for the time, he lets out an involuntary hoot of panic and he just grabs the yellow one and throws some cash in a hurry at the cashier before hurtling out the door.

They decided to plan the “date” sometime during the break when they travelled back home for Christmas, in case their friends crashed it as any normal group of friends probably would do. Mingi chose to not elaborate on what kind of date he would take Yunho on, winking at him and saying that it was a mystery only to have Yunho attack him with a pillow and ending the discussion with a pillow fight.

He arrives at Yunho’s house, somehow on time, and towing the flowers he bought last minute after much debate with Yeosang over text ( _“It's romantic,”_ said Yeosang, and Mingi has to remind him that it’s technically not a real date only to have Yeosang state how he would be a terrible boyfriend. So Mingi bought flowers), and he shuffles awkwardly in front of the residence that had technically become a second home to him since freshman year high school.

There’s nothing much to lose, other than the tattered shreds of his confidence, but all the same, maybe it won’t be awkward for long. He hesitates once more before knocking on the door as confidently as he could, accidentally smashing his knuckles painfully against the wood of the door. The door is thrown open and he is greeted by a blast of banana and Yunho’s mother, who’s dressed in an apron with flour all over her hands and cheeks.

“Oh Mingi!” she exclaims, eyebrows rising in surprise and smiling, and Mingi realizes where Yunho got his radiance from.

She opens up her arms and Mingi leans into it for a hug.

“You’ve grown so tall! And You and Yunho both got even more handsome after leaving for college too! Makes me think I didn’t feed you well enough.”

“Oh no,” Mingi replies, separating himself and shaking his head, remembering the greasy fast food breakfasts that he and Yunho had to order every day. “I’ve definitely missed your cooking, Miss Jeong.”

Miss Jeong lets him in the house, patting his cheeks and head and covering him with flour. She laughs amicably as he shakes his hair like a dog, throwing up a poof of white, giggling more at his pout as he takes off his shoes.

“It’s wonderful to have you guys back though. I think I missed you kids being noisy at three every time you slept over.” She leads him down the hall to the living room. “Oh, and make sure to remind your mother that the Christmas party is going to start earlier this year, she always says she’ll remember but I swear to god she never does.”

“Roger that,” Mingi chuckles, his bouquet dangling by his side.

“Yunho will probably be down in a minute—” A timer beeps in the kitchen, and Miss Jeong jumps a little. “That’s my bread! I’ll just— YUNHO, GET DOWN HERE!”

She hurries off with another playful pat on his cheek, leaving Mingi with a white handprint on his face while he settles down on the couch. The flowers lay over his lap carefully, him checking if any leaves and petals were out of place when he set them down. Absentmindedly, he hums out the tune from the project he’s been composing with Hongjoong, managing to fix out some of the kinks that has been bothering him for the past few days he’s been working on it. Maybe he could ask for Yunho’s opinion on the different synths he could add. 

From upstairs, he could hear thumping followed by a loud crash, as if someone had fallen over, and jolts upright, ready to sprint upstairs.

But before he could, Yunho appears on the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet as he rushes down. Managing to catch his footing, he relaxes his posture in relief, but somehow also simultaneously losing balance and rolling down the rest of the stairs. Mingi hurries and kneels next to Yunho, helping him sit up with the other groaning in pain.

Mingi can’t say he’s particularly well-dressed, but he feels almost overdressed in Yunho’s presence. Not to say that Yunho looked terrible or anything, but the general bedhead and the tattered sweats and oversized shirt is a far cry from what Yunho would normally wear when going out. Yunho looks sheepish when he lifts his head to Mingi hovering over him, and immediately climbs up, dusting off his pants and clearing his throat. Mingi is immediately thrown into a panic as Yunho sways on his feet, hurrying to support him with his shoulder.

“Dude, are you good? It sounded like someone jumped through a window up there,” Mingi asks while scanning Yunho’s body for any injuries. 

“Yeah, um,” Yunho mumbles while scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “…Look, about the ‘date’, um…I don’t—”

Mingi deflates a little, already kicking himself in his head because he _knew_ , he just _knew_ , that Yunho would be uncomfortable in some way, but the other was just too nice to say so. Even though he knows it’s not an official date (as emphasized by Yunho putting quotes around “date” the way he did), it still hurts a little to get rejected. It was supposed to be just a fun hangout day too, with Mingi planning to take him to the festival downtown and grab some hot cocoas like they used to.

“It’s ok if you think this not-date is weird y’know, you could’ve just told me.” Mingi smiles, trying to make sure it doesn’t look like he’s grimacing or oddly constipated. “I mean it’s really just a hang out day so—”

“Nonono, oh my god.” Yunho is all shades of flustered right now, shaking his hands in front of his and running his fingers through his hair in some kind of panic. “No, it’s not because of that. I just…My group mates for my final project kinda just…ditched me? I guess, and I have to finish the project by midnight tonight and I’m nowhere done, oh my god. And I also totally blanked and promised Yunkwon I’d hang out with her like today since Yeeun is out and—”

The rest of his sentence consists of rapid breathing and weird twists of the tongue.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” reassures Mingi as he approaches Yunho carefully, wrapping his arms around him and hopefully conveying some form of comfort. “We can always postpone it, and I can help you if you’d like. I don’t mind.”

Yunho doesn’t respond, exhaling with his breath tight and wobbly, but he relaxes into the hug, burying his face into Mingi’s shoulder. Mingi feels the corner of his lips turn up as Yunho’s familiar warmth buries itself into his chest, even though he knows Yunho is about to cry. Although they’re the same height really, there are times that Yunho feels unbelievably small in his grasp, and sometimes Mingi wonders if he grew taller than he was supposed to to stand by Yunho’s side. It’s a warming thought, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Hearing a soft clatter, Mingi looks up from Yunho’s shoulder and catches a glimpse of Miss Jeong turning the corner from the kitchen with several plates of banana bread balanced on her arms, but meeting her gaze, she immediately backtracks out of the living room with a dangerously sweet smile. He can feel his face heat up a little bit.

“Yunho~” A voice interrupts the moment from the stairs. “Can we go out now?”

Yunho immediately tenses in Mingi’s hold, separating himself so quickly that Mingi thinks his arms are going to be torn off from the force.

“Uh, yeah,” Yunho hesitates and darts a nervous glance at the stairs, letting his shaking eyes settle on Mingi for a brief second. “Actually Mingi’s going to take you out today!”

Mingi whips his head around in shock.

“I’m going to what?!” Mingi whisper-yells.

“Shit.” Yunho flails with wide panicked eyes. “I’m sorry it just came out— b-but I can—”

The brunette looks like he’s verging on a heart attack again, with tears already gathering in his eyes. Himself being the opposite of a crybaby (he laughed through their dance group’s first win while everyone else bawled their eyes out), he only partly understood what Yunho is probably feeling, but it hurt seeing Yunho spiraling. He might hate himself afterwards, but he steels himself.

“Yunkwon, you better be ready! We’re leaving in five!” Mingi calls out.

He hears Yunkwon scramble up the stairs with a shouted “okay!” and sighs, elbowing Yunho in the ribs. Yunho winces apologetically, looking way more guilty than Mingi liked. His face is dark and somber, a rare expression that Mingi saw only several times and never wishes to see ever again.

“A fair warning would be great next time,” Mingi humphs, trying to lighten the mood by grabbing Yunho’s shoulders and shaking him back and forth. “You know how hard it is to make up some lines on the spot?”

It seems to be a success as Yunho snorts at that, wiping at his nose with his sleeve. “Like you aren’t a chronic liar.”

“You take that back you lanky bitch!” Mingi laughs while tackling Yunho to the ground.

“You’re just as lanky noodle arms!” Yunho yells back before he starts choking on his laughter at Mingi poking at his ribs.

“Boys, if you break my vase again I _will_ make you clean our entire house,” Miss Jeong sings as she comes back into the living room again just to see two grown men tussle all over the living room floor. “Also I’ve got some banana bread for you.”

She doesn’t get a response as Yunho manages to flip Mingi over and is now tickling the hell out of him. Mingi gives off a roar of laughter, batting at Yunho’s arms as the other straddles him and attacks mercilessly. A sigh escapes her lips as she sets the bread down on the coffee table, rolling up her sleeves and patting the flour off her hands onto her apron. She pulls a long pillow from the couch and swings it, whacking them over the head and managing to get them to quiet down. Mingi grunts as Yunho flops down on top of him in defeat. He would roll Yunho off if he could, but every inch of air is stolen from his lungs. 

As if she didn’t just beat the hell out of them with a pillow, Miss Jeong hands them both a ziploc bag with several pieces of banana bread fit into it, not a single piece smushed somehow, and Mingi decides that Miss Jeong might be magical.

“I’m ready!” Yunkwon announces her appearance at the bottom of the stairs standing proudly with her hands on her hips as she flicks her bag over her shoulder. 

“You’re wearing nothing!” Her mom gasps as she looks up and hurries towards her daughter. “Put on a jacket at least!”

“No!” Yunkwon complains, fighting against her mother’s insistent hands. “It’s fashion mom!”

“You looks stupid,” Yunho butts in, taking a huge chunk of his banana bread while putting a hand on his hip sassily. “Should learn from a real master, like me.”

“You've been wearing the same shirt for three days,” Yunkwon fires back trying to wriggle out of her mom’s grasp.

“It’s a fashion statement,” Yunho huffs, flipping his hair. “Not like _you_ would know anything about it, that is.” 

“You look like trash.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do, you giant pool noodle.”

“Do not! And did you just call me a pool noodle?!”

“Yeah I did, and what about it?”

“Oh you little mushroom headass—”

“LANGUAGE!” Their mother cuts in, offended, but only for a moment as she continues to grapple with Yunkwon.

“Well, _she_ started it.”

“How did I start it when _you’re_ the one that called my outfit trash, and looking like that too!”

“Well you have no taste!”

“Mingi, tell him he looks like garbage before he embarrasses this entire family.”

His cheeks stuffed full, Mingi is just trying to mind his own business, but he is suddenly thrust in the spotlight, with even Miss Jeong stopping her wrestling match with her daughter to hear his verdict. He gulps, and the gigantic lump of banana bread is pushed down his throat with his adam’s apple bobbing nervously.

“Um, well,” Mingi starts, looking between Yunkwon’s challenging gaze and Yunho’s shining one. “Yunho still looks good even if his shirt isn’t the best?”

He didn’t mean to phrase it like a question, but neither of the siblings seem to care anyways.

“Ha! See?” Yunho whoops victoriously while pointing at Yunkwon.

“He still called your shirt trash,” Yunkwon rebukes, but Mingi feels her glance at him with an unknown expression.

“Alright that’s enough,” Miss Jeong cuts in, holding two fists up like a conductor. “Mingi, Yunkwon, come home at an appropriate time please, and Yunho—”

“Yes ma’am,” Yunho deflates, trudging towards the stairs with his tired posture already back in place

“Yay Mingi, let’s go!” Yunkwon cheers as she loops her arms around Mingi’s while making one last face at Yunho and drags him towards the door.

“Good luck on your project!”

Managing to throw the statement over his shoulder, Mingi is pulled out into the open before he could hear Yunho’s response. He is tossed into his car by the freshman high schooler before she makes herself comfortable on the passenger seat, and he has never been more terrified of a small girl in a cropped sweater before. 

“Lets go!” she commands with a cheery accent as she moves the seat down and crosses her arms across her chest.

Mingi sighs, because he did not sign up to be a babysitter at all. Even if Yunho’s sisters are some of the coolest people he had hung out with, that doesn’t mean he isn’t mildly disappointed that his and Yunho’s free day is robbed by some stupid groupmates not doing their part of a project. But he complies, because he hasn’t seen Yunkwon for a while anyways, and his grip instinctively tightens on the wheel as he starts the car. 

This isn’t Yunho, but he’s sure as hell going to make this a perfect date, one that can be used as a prime example in a dictionary for perfect dates. God damn, if he isn’t going to be able to give a glorious date experience to Yunho, he sure as hell will give one to Yunkwon.

After a short drive, the houses around them slowly extend upwards and the streets begin to grow wider. Cars begin filling into the lanes next to them as the sky fades into hues of purple and orange. The wind picks up, licking at Mingi’s skin with a cold tongue and sending a shudder up his spine. He turns to check on Yunkwon, only to find her in prime condition, the strong winds not even producing goosebumps on her skin. Teenagers are terrifying these days.

The irritating screech of sports car wheels begin to scratch at Mingi’s ears at almost every stop light as they further downtown, but they manage to find a less crowded street to search for a place to park before Mingi’s eardrums can burst. 

Yunkwon sits cross-legged on the car seat and talks to him about things going on at her school and drama between her friends, especially detailing some guy her friend was dating that wouldn’t let them talk to the girl during school.

“He’s like, off, y’know?” Yunkwon says, gesturing vaguely with a lollipop she found in Mingi’s glove compartment. “He’s not even cute-cute if you know what I mean. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even like him either.”

Mingi hums affirmatively, half paying attention to what she’s saying while trying to get the god-awful sound of car wheels against concrete out of his head.

“She doesn’t even text us anymore, and she used to. All the time. She was like one of those instant repliers you know?” Yunkwon continues, “it’s kind of weird, it’s like only his number is on her phone.”

“You snooped in her phone?”

“Well, technically I got a glimpse of it those rare times she comes and hangs out. But the point is we were texting in the group chat but none of the notifications show our stuff! Only his!”

“Doesn’t that mean she just doesn’t like talking to you guys? Maybe you should drop her.” he swerves as a driver cuts into his lane. “What the fuck man!”

“No! I know it’s not like that!” Yunkwon protests while waving her lollipop way too close to Mingi’s face while he curses at the driver.

“Alright then,” Mingi complies, “watch out for her then, she might have something going on.”

He manages to find a spot to park right when they finish the conversation, and they both get out after Mingi spends way too many minutes trying to properly parallel park.

The festival is just how he remembers back in highschool, with glittering Christmas lights strung between boughs of bare trees and groups of many young and old wandering the brick path that leads through the park. Children are running around in the central plaza, throwing snowballs at each other and building snowmen, their parents watching fondly from the sidelines and some even joining in. Couples walk arm in arm between Christmas displays, with admittedly creepy animatronics of children singing carols and mechanical elves wrapping up presents in Santa’s workshop.

Mingi guides Yunkwon around, excitedly relaying memories he had of the Christmas festival in the park, taking pictures of the different Christmas trees wrapped in tinsel and small snowmen lining the sides of the walking path for Yunho while at it. He points out a rusty and breaking down display of Rudolph and the reindeers, galloping across the painted sky with Dasher out of commission and on the floor.

“Yunho always said Dasher looked like he was on his last limbs,” Mingi remarks as Yunkwon proceeds to gasp dramatically and fake-sob over Dasher’s dead body. 

They hold a small fake funeral and laugh at the way several adults look at them like they were crazy. Mingi snaps a picture of Yunkwon on her knees and burying her face in her hands next to Dasher and captions it “RIP to your favorite reindeer” to Yunho. Eventually, he has to get Yunkwon to stand up because some security guards are looking awfully close to coming over.

“Look how stupid these children look,” Yunkwon yells, because of course you would yell that in the middle of literal crowds of children.

Mingi follows behind her to see the familiar faces of animatronic children in a classroom. Why they are in the classroom? Yunho always makes up theories on how they’re brainwashing children that going to school will guarantee a Santa visit, and Mingi has to agree with him. Yunkwon mulls over the though after a little, but decides that her brother is probably correct about that one thing.

“Jesus I think I’m going to have nightmares.” She shields her eyes with her hands as the blank-eyed children start giggling. “Who decided making them look like this was a good idea.”

Mingi snickers and nods. “Dude, I remember saying the same thing! This shit should’ve just been a Halloween exhibit, like school? And creepy children? Yunho just said they looked cute, that psychopath.”

Snorting with laughter, Yunkwon imitates the face of one particularly terrifying child, bugging out her eyes and smiling thinly. Mingi manages to snap a picture and send it to Yunho with tears in his eyes from laughing so hard, even having several people coming up to ask if he needed some medical attention. Yunkwon has to drag him away, apologizing as she does so because he could barely speak from his abdomen hurting so badly. 

They continue exploring the park, making fun of way too many things that are technically not funny at all. Mingi is ninety-percent sure they offended the Spirit of Christmas Past, Present, and Future along with multiple families, but honestly it’s a lot of fun right now, although he does wish Yunho could’ve come too.

After exploring the whole park and spending their time doing way too much stupid shit, they start taking selfies in front of the giant Christmas tree in the plaza, a cheery couple offering to take pictures for them a few minutes in their failed photo session, which only descended into more chaos as Yunkwon tries to piggyback Mingi. They end up having a bunch of pictures taken of them collapsing into a heap on the snow and the couple could barely contain their giggles as they hand them back their phones. 

Bidding the couple goodbye, Mingi pulls Yunkwon to the hot chocolate stall where they sold the cutest snowman hot chocolate that never failed to make Yunho smile. As expected, Yunkwon squeals in excitement and pulls out her phone, snapping a bunch of pictures and holding up her cup in front of Mingi to send to Yunho. Mingi takes the time to check the texts that Yunho sends back for both of them and it contains a bunch of curses at how he couldn’t go and a bunch of crying emojis. He sends back a sad face and words of support laced with several “your sister is more fun than you” with a complimentary heart emoji.

“Let’s go to the arcade down the street,” Mingi suggests as they walk down the lit streets, bathing in the warm yellow glow as snow begins to fall around them and drinking the hot chocolate. “Yunho loves the arcade, and the prizes are actually decent.”

“Sounds good,” Yunkwon hums in agreeance, wrapping her fingers around the hot chocolate cup appreciatively. “You know, you and Yunho are a cute couple.”

Mingi freezes in his path, whipping around and blinking at the girl. “What?”

“What do you mean what? Don’t make me say it again. You guys are cute, I’m glad he found someone like you.” she takes a sip of her beverage, looking over the rim of her cup, seemingly a bit embarrassed with the compliment as her cheeks flush a little more than what would be from the cold.

“W-we’re not a thing?” Mingi is baffled because when had he and Yunho ever looked like a “thing” in the first place?

She narrows her eyes at him, the cup moving away from her lips and leaving a ridiculous whipped cream mustache Mingi would’ve laughed at if he weren’t so confused right now.

“You’re not serious right? Or is this the whole ‘I’m not out of the closet’ situation,” she pushes, stepping towards Mingi, but he’s not sure if it’s because they are blocking walking traffic or if she’s planning on stabbing him with a hidden knife.

“No, I’m not joking?” Mingi’s mind is swirling right now because _what the fuck?_ “Yunho is my best friend and I know he has a crush…that he didn’t tell me about.”

The last part is added quietly, but Yunkwon hears it anyways.

“Bro, you’re not fucking serious, you’ve literally been talking about him like this entire time? You look at a pile of snow and go like ‘Yunho likes jumping in these,’ the fuck you mean you guys aren’t a thing?” Yunkwon looks both incredulous and stupefied.

“I-I have?”

“Yes!”

Mingi thinks back to the start, weaving through the park again and attempting to remember everything he said. From the beginning, at the park’s entrance, then at the reindeer exhibit, the creepy animatronic children, then the Christmas trees and the standing cutouts. Then there’s also this rock, a big one, that Yunho really liked to stand on top of, and he does it every year they came, and it’s always endearing for Mingi to look at him, a tall man, begging for a photo of him posing on top of a rock, so much so that he couldn’t resist—

“I _have_.” The realization comes a bit late, but Mingi would like to give some kudos to himself for thinking about it at all in this cold weather.

“Mhm.” Yunkwon sips at her hot chocolate again, this time more aggressively than before. “Are you sure you’re not a little in love with him?”

This time, he instinctively recalls all the weird fluttering feelings and strange coiling in his stomach that he slowly got used to after years. Sure, there were ones that are so intense that he unconsciously grabs at his chest to calm it down, but it happens so often that it’s basically normal to him now. Then he thinks about the times he’s felt it with any other person, and he could only list a dog, if that amounts to anything—

_Oh._

“I’m in…love with Yunho?”

“You’re in love with Yunho.”

“I’m in love with— _I’m in love with Yunho_.” Mingi grabs Yunkwon’s shoulders, eyes bugging as he reaches the second epiphany of the night. “Holy shit, I’m in love with Yunho.”

“I’ve heard his name enough times today, you don’t have to repeat yourself,” Yunkwon says, putting the cup back to her lips again and seeming awfully unbothered by Mingi’s mental breakdown. “Can we go to the arcade now? My legs are freezing thanks to your lovesick ass.”

———

Mingi is pretty sure he skipped some steps to falling for someone, like pining, and, well, taking the other on dates, but he really couldn’t complain, not when Yunho is seconds away from being snatched by someone else.

Ok, so maybe he didn’t skip a few steps, he just took way too long to realize that he even _like-liked_ Yunho in the first place, even if the revelation took barely a minute.

You can’t blame him. I mean it’s kind of like twisting your ankle so many times that eventually you can just continue walking like your ankle didn’t just collapse on you for a few seconds. Point is, he’s been whipped from the very beginning, if he could properly estimate from Yunkwon’s exasperated sighs.

Ok, so what the fuck is he supposed to do now?

Mingi sucks in a huge breath and tastes the staleness and sweat floating in the air, scrolling through the results of “How to tell your best friend you might have a gigantic crush on them borderlining on love,” clicking into the various links. He doesn’t know what he expects, but if he could give any sound advice for the website creators, the first step probably shouldn’t be “Don’t expect anything”. He groans, falling back onto his arm and feeling the sweat on his back sticking uncomfortably to the floor.

“Dude, you good?” Footsteps fall next to his head, and senses someone squatting down next to him. Mingi manages to identify the voice as Hwanwoong, who is actually one of the people he hung out with outside of practice with the dance group, and makes a rather miserable noise, removing his arms from his eyes with smacking his elbow painfully into the wooden floor.

“Ah, yes. Sounds about right,” the other laughs as he puts his chin on his arms. “Judging from your phone too, looks like you need some help.”

Mingi bolts upright, suddenly feeling a surge of panic-fueled energy and almost knocking Hwanwoong backwards if it weren’t for the other’s terrific balance. “No, I don’t— You’re misunderstanding, I’m fine just don’t…fuck.

“Hey,” Hwanwoong reassures, setting a hand on his shoulder as he fumbles over his words. “It’s fine, dude. I’ve been through the same, if that makes you feel any better.”

“O-oh,” Mingi coughs, “um, well how did it go?”

“Well, we’re still friends.”

“So it didn’t work.”

“Mm, well,” the other responds with a poorly concealed smirk while looking at his nails. “We kiss and go on dates, so I’d say it worked pretty well.”

Mingi falls silent. 

Hwanwoong collapses with giggles after he finishes his sentence, unable to hold back anymore after watching Mingi’s expression fall blank. While Hwanwoong is rolling on the floor with laughter, Mingi reaches out and manages to trap the smaller with a light headlock, cursing at him while the other tries to struggle free between gasping laughs. 

“You’re a fucking menace,” Mingi growls as Hwanwoong struggles weakly while still laughing. 

“Y-your face is fucking hilarious I wish someone filmed that,” cackles Hwanwoong as he tugs on Mingi’s arms fruitlessly. “But seriously, just confess, it’s not going to do any damage.”

“He might not want to be friends anymore,” Mingi points out logically, the “don’t expect anything” popping into his head again.

“You’d need to get a better best friend if they’re just going to drop you after a confession, and you know Yunho isn’t like that.”

“That’s true but—”

“Worst case he’s going to be uncomfortable for a few days, but at this point I don’t think you have anything to worry about.” Hwanwoong says all matter-of-factly, like it was really that simple to just spill out your lifelong (or what feels like lifelong) crush on your best friend.

Just as Mingi opens his mouth, not even knowing what to retort but wanting to retaliate anyways, someone calls Hwanwoong’s name from the hall, and Hwanwoong gives him a pat on the shoulder before getting up and running out.

Mingi sits up in the empty practice room, looking at himself in the mirrors with the same quizzical face reflected back at him from all four walls.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

—————————————

Mingi wakes up with a jolt, bolting upright only to have a barrage of sunlight stab at his eyeballs. He screams and falls back onto the bed again, shoving the heel of palms into his eye sockets as if it could relieve the pain in any way, both in his head and in his eyes.

His room door slams open in a panic, sending him toppling off the side of his bed out of fright with his blanket in tow. He grunts as his face hits the floor with his blankets falling over his head and obscuring his vision, thankfully blocking most of the sunlight from his thrown-open curtains. After wrestling with his tangled blankets for a few seconds too long, he manages to pop his head out from the tunnel of cloth, hitting something hard with his forehead as he does so.

A resounding knock echoes through the room along with heavy cursing as Mingi leans back and slaps a hand to his forehead. He looks up, wincing as he locks eyes with Yunho, who is mirroring his pose only with a gigantic red mark prominent at the center of his forehead and a sleep flushed face. He bursts out laughing at the woefully pained expression on the other’s face and tears in his eyes.

“Stop laughing you idiot!” Yunho hisses as he wipes at his cheeks where a shiny trail begins to trace down his face. “You look just as terrible, you know.”

“Pfft, but your expression,” Mingi laughs as he crawls towards Yunho with his legs tangling even further into his blankets. “It’s cute.”

He leans forward as if on instinct to place a peck onto the glaring red spot on Yunho’s forehead.

“U-um—” Yunho makes a flustered noise suddenly, and Mingi looks down at him.

Shivers begins crawling up Mingi’s bare skin as he realizes that he’s half-naked on top of Yunho, his unfortunate habit of stripping off his top in his sleep coming back and biting him in the ass once again (he once was late to class and rushed halfway to his classroom only to have Yunho chase him down and toss a shirt at his head), and all the blood he has rushes to his cheeks.

He coughs, and Yunho kicks him in the stomach.

“Don’t cough on my head,” The brunette huffs, ears turning red while crawling out from under Mingi, who collapsed in pain on top of him. “And I made breakfast…kinda.”

He leaves Mingi alone after that, calling over his shoulder that he’ll be changing in his room. Mingi climbs up after that, slapping himself for even thinking about kissing Yunho on the forehead without even considering how uncomfortable the other must feel. The feeling gnaws on his chest as he walks toward the door, grabbing an old shirt from the pile of clothes on his chair and pulling it on as he does, subsequently tripping over the blankets that still wrap around his feet.

Grumbling a little, he rips away the covers from his feet, throwing it back onto his bed with an unprompted rage he would like to say was from his hangover. A small piece of paper flutters to the floor after the blankets lands somewhat on his bed, and he picks it up, curiosity taking over him because he for sure didn’t remember having neon pink paper anywhere in his room. 

In admittedly prettier handwriting than his own, it read: _advil on table because I know you won’t see it._

He smiles, scoffing a little bit but tucking the paper into his pocket with a giant swell of affection weakening his knees again. Walking out, the strong scent of coffee hitting his nose instead of the regular greasy smell of fast food breakfast. Mingi’s nose twitches as he takes a deep whiff of the warm scent that seems to permeate his skin and make him feel a lot warmer in the early spring chill that still holds the remnants of new year beer and unfulfilled resolutions.

Really, the beer smell is probably due to the really late New Year’s party that _Yeosang_ , of all people, threw yesterday and that he attended with Yunho, but Mingi just wanted to be poetic, call it a sin.

Making it to the kitchen, Mingi sees cups, the only things that really inhabit their kitchen next to the singular pan and chopsticks and newly purchased espresso machine and milk steamer. Except there are way too many cups. Like a shit ton more compared to the two that Mingi sees every time he opens up the cupboards. 

The counter is covered in splotches of brown and white and a small metal measuring cup is tipped over on the counter, still leaking what he hopes is milk. Mingi leans over the counter carefully to peer at the array of mugs.

His chest squeezes painfully as he looks at the small little latte bears that Yunho made in the cups, albeit half of them being crooked or literally just being a little puddle of steamed milk. He groans loudly, because he could imagine the amount of time and effort Yunho put into each individual cup, and it hurt him physically thinking about how cute it was. The best thing he can do is slap himself in the face until the pain distracts him from how he has a big honking crush on Yunho that is certainly growing bigger by the day.

“Mingi?” Yunho calls as he comes out, yawning and stretching, as if he just woke up. “Should we order Mcdonalds again?”

“N-nah, let's just make something ourselves, I think I had enough hashbrowns,” Mingi cringes, straightening like a stick the moment Yunho walks out from the hall and hoping that his cheeks are too red.

“Hm, okay.”

As Yunho walks past him (dressed like a god, if Mingi could say so himself, he might die if he really looked at Yunho any longer), Mingi is doing his best not to double over and embarrass himself. He muffles a groan and tries to move his eyes away from the other, only to have his gaze permanently stuck like super glue. 

_Don’t. Kiss. Yunho’s. Cheeks._ is the only thought present in his mind as he watches the still a little groggy Yunho, with a tint of red still present and a slight sleepiness in his eyelids, stumble around the kitchen and searching the cupboards for anything to make.

If he didn’t want to punch something then, he definitely wanted to sock Yunho in the face right now.

He opts for the next best thing and turns and punches the wall.

His knuckles connect painfully to the plaster wall and surprisingly didn’t leave a hole or even an indent in the cheap material, but the sound is enough to make Yunho whip his head around with his eyes blown wide.

“What the fuck?”

“H-headache,” Mingi lies.

Well, it was only half a lie, because his skull is still pounding, but he mostly forgot about it due to his inability to control his feelings now that he’s actually aware of them.

“To think I even wrote you a note,” Yunho sighs dramatically, but tosses him the bottle of Advil anyways. “Now hurry up I found some… year and a half old pancake mix.”

Mingi nods, grinning, and when Yunho turns again, starts cursing at his fist and the wall. While he vengefully sips water from a spoon because all the cups are used up, he vows to one: never get dragged into Yunho’s 3 a.m. shenanigans, and two: get some bowls.

He loops a flowery apron over Yunho’s neck, a gag gift from Wooyoung, and puts on a “Kiss the Cook” one from San, since he figured they’d have to use it someday, and right now seems like a perfect excuse. Plus that hoodie Yunho is wearing happened to be his favorite, and Mingi is not about to listen to him whine over a coffee stain on the yellow fabric (and plus they can’t match anymore if he did get a stain on it). 

Also they don’t know how to cook. At all. But pancakes shouldn’t be that hard though.

Mingi would say that they are doing great so far, with minimum pancake mix spillage (it covered the whole floor) and a surprise of eggs actually being in their fridge, making it way easier than to find out a way to work around the whole “no eggs” thing in their boxed recipe.

While Mingi stirs the batter, Yunho quickly tosses some leftover butter from the fridge into the heated pan, yelping as the grease starts popping, bumping his hips into Mingi as he backs away. A bit of pancake batter splatters onto Mingi’s foot as he is bumped forward, and he sets his hand on the counter, accidentally landing into a puddle of spilled coffee and almost dropping the bowl.

He glares at Yunho, pouring the chunky batter into the pan, this time him jumping when the pan makes a popping noise. Yunho scoffs pointedly and snatches a spatula that Mingi didn’t even know they had, hovering over the filled pan. Mingi just leans on the other’s shoulder without a care after washing his hands in the sink, poking at Yunho’s cheeks with a wet finger cheekily, only to have the other attempt to bite it.

Waiting impatiently for the pancakes to “brown” (Mingi wasn’t sure how they were supposed to check since they are utterly terrified of the popping grease), he taps his foot impatiently to an invisible song repeating throughout his mind while rapping quiet verses from the song that Hongjoong and him composed recently for class. Yunho smiles, humming along clumsily, although he doesn’t know the song at all since it wasn’t finished.

“Dude, remember the orange juice rap?” Yunho snorts, smacking the spatula onto Mingi’s face because sanitary awareness is definitely present in this dorm room.

“Oh fuck dude, that rap was _sick_.” Mingi smacks the spatula away with a wide grin, a bubbling joy filling his chest as he realizes that Yunho remembers the silly little rap from high school.

“No, it was stupid as fuck,” snorts Yunho, but he has a splitting grin on his face.

“It was stupid as fuck,” Mingi gripes mockingly, scrunching his face distastefully. “You helped y’know.”

Yunho just shrugs, leaning into Mingi naturally and yawning, his eyes fluttering shut as he rests his head into the crook of Mingi’s neck.

Mingi didn’t expect the other to remember, but the memory of Yunho’s hair painted gold in the sunlight and knocking his head lightly against Mingi’s own as he mouthed out the thoughts thrown thoughtlessly into the air still takes up an embarrassing amount of Mingi’s brain space, with the other’s lips curving around each syllable thoughtfully and testing them on his tongue as his eyes wander across the page replaying constantly at random times of the day. He specifically, and embarrassingly, remembers being mesmerized by Yunho’s long eyelashes fluttering against his cheek being pushed up by one hand, and his heart had definitely skipped more beats than what would be healthy.

If Mingi is honest, the rhymes were stuck together with only the knowledge of middle school poetry, and they definitely also just changed up lyrics of viral rap songs. 

A hiss distracts his memories, the little blurred pictures fizzing out along with the harsh pop coming from the stove, and Yunho jerks awake from his drowsy state, hitting Mingi’s chin with his head and wincing. Directing his face back to the frying pan atop the stove that both of them had really ignored for a couple minutes and maybe longer, a burst of flame licks heat into his face, and Mingi jerks his head back in surprise. He tugs Yunho back from the fire in a frenzy, his mouth dropping in shock as a crimson tongue reaches high from its place in the pan. Hurling the spatula at the kitchen sink, Yunho frantically peels himself away from Mingi and pelts off towards the hall, leaving Mingi to the stove.

_Thanks for the fucking help_ , Mingi thinks as he grits his teeth, shutting off the stove and rushing about the kitchen, taking a thick hand towel and throwing it upon the flames. 

The pan only sputters pathetically, but the flames engulf the towel anyways, and panic begins to overtake any level headedness that he had remaining. Whipping his head around, his legs slam into cabinets and his hand splash heavily into the puddles on the counter as he stumbles around the kitchen for something to put the fire out. 

Out of the blue, a purple bath towel flies past his head followed by a blur of brown hair and neon yellow shirt. Yunho leaps past Mingi and pounces on top of the flames, smothering it until there is nothing left but black smoke curling out from beneath the fibers of purple. There goes the pleasant breakfast.

“Christ, what the fuck?!” Yunho turns with his hair sticking up comically in all directions, eyes blown wide as he stumbles to stand straight. 

Mingi doesn’t answer, just staring back at Yunho with the adrenaline from the fire still pounding heavily in his chest. And curse his blasphemous mind, it still had time to admire how cute Yunho looks.

Yunho sighs dejectedly, peering at the black plume still leaking hopelessly from the pan and the burnt streak against the wall behind the stove.

“Mcdonalds?”

“Good idea.”

—————————————

“Ok, so what do I do.”

“Go confess and stop bothering me.” Yeosang takes a loud sip from his smoothie as Mingi presses his cheek against the cold, sticky wood of the cafe table.

“Thanks bitch, I hate you,” Mingi grates out irritably as he makes awkward eye contact with a kid standing by the counter.

“Great, now leave me alone.”

Mingi raises his arm and gropes blindly for Yeosang, a great attempt at trying to kill the other if Yeosang wasn’t across the table and two feet away from his hand.

They are supposed to be studying, and they did, for a grand total of thirty minutes in the two hours that they have been at the campus cafe, but Yeosang had dropped his book down on the table at the one hour mark and melted into his seat while fiddling with his phone. It’s unfair since Mingi knows that Yeosang rarely studies and still gets perfect grades. It’s really fucking unfair that he has the audacity to even look this put together with a math exam the next day.

“Who’s your crush then?” Mingi interrogates, lifting his head up slightly to properly glare at Yeosang. “Why don’t you confess to them, huh?”

“Oh shut up,” Yeosang hisses right as the barista comes over with the fifth slice of cake that Yeosang has ordered today, to which he immediately switches up his expression and smiles in thanks before whipping back around with a grumpy expression. “It’s not that easy.”

“See?!” Mingi accuses, slamming his hands onto the table. “And you didn’t even tell me who it is yet even though _you promised_.”

“Why the fuck would I tell you? You’d just end up telling Yunho and then he’ll tell _everyone_ ,” Yeosang sniffs, stabbing into his cake.

“I told you mine, so tell me yours.”

Yeosang chews angrily while initiating an intense staredown that would deter any further questioning on a normal day, but today Mingi is feeling brave, and dammit he’s going to find out which angel that descended from the heavens (or which attractive game character) got Yeosang’s attention. He looks straight back, busting out the puppy dog eyes that work a good chunk of the time with Hongjoong and Seonghwa.

“Fine!” Yeosang barks out after Mingi leans in closer and bats his eyelashes until they’re essentially nose to nose. “It’s Seonghwa, ok?”

His voice lowers to a whisper as he reveals the juicy piece of gossip that Mingi is totally going to tell Yunho. To think that this supernatural being has gotten Yeosang’s attention with most likely their use of magic or something.

“Did you fucking just say Seonghwa or did I trip balls for a second?” Mingi does a double take, because there’s no _fucking way_ —

“It’s Seonghwa,” Yeosang confirms quietly, nose dipping down as he breaks off a gigantic chunk of his cake. 

“Oh.”

A beat.

“Sounds like we both are a little bit fucked right?” Yeosang chuckles despairingly. “I didn’t even want to like him but he’s just so damn… _him_ , you know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Mingi agrees, snapping out of his shock and swirling his straw around in his watered down peach green tea. “Honestly I thought it would be like a mermaid or something, like Kang Yeosang? Having a crush on someone real?”

“I didn’t think so either but here we are.”

They both take a long depressing sip from their drinks, the clinking of what remains of Mingi’s ice seeming too joyful at their predicament. A text pings happily on Yeosang’s phone just as they both descend into the dark mood they’ve been enduring alone. The blond doesn’t even bother picking up his phone, shifting his head over a little so that he could see the screen somewhat without having to move a limb. Mingi lifts his head enough to have his lips somewhat reach the straw, stretching painfully as he watches the other’s every move. 

“Seonghwa texted.” Yeosang straightens.

“Ooo, gimme.” Mingi perks up, grabbing for the device. “What’d he say?”

“He’s asking if I’m free right now,” Yeosang says, turning around to face Mingi with wide eyes. “What do I say?”

“Tell him yeah, dude! Get some!”

“But we’re studying!”

“ _I’m_ studying, just tell him yes!”

Yeosang nods, not even objecting to Mingi’s jab as he frantically types into his phone. Mingi stands and scooches into Yeosang’s side of the table, leaning over him and trying to watch him type the message out. In pure Yeosang fashion, the other just tucks into himself and moves aside so the Mingi can’t see the screen. 

“Let me see,” Mingi whines, basically climbing on top of Yeosang to look at his screen. 

“He just asked if I wanted to hang out later!” Yeosang responds, out of breath as Mingi’s whole body weight is on him. “What the fuck do I say?”

“I got it.” Mingi snatches the phone from Yeosang’s fingers, garnering a protest from the other as he struggles for the phone while being pressed down into the seat. “You have to help me with Yunho afterwards though, deal?”

The expression on Yeosang’s face is the most expressively violent Mingi has ever seen, and forgetting that he may want to preserve his life to even remotely get anywhere with Yunho, Mingi starts laughing because while Yeosang may be showcasing a murderous intent, he still looks like an angry kitten.

“Fine.”

“Great, now sit back and eat your cake.” Mingi slowly gets off of Yeosang, carefully making sure the other wouldn’t jump him the moment some pressure is off of him.

Fortunately, Yeosang just crosses his arms petulantly and sits up, moving to the corner where the couch meets the wall and stares at Mingi vengefully over his slice of cake. Mingi just makes a face at the blond while typing schemingly into his phone. He’s convinced that Seonghwa has a crush on Yeosang anyways, and if not, he has a very, very horribly concealed bias for Yeosang (as does everyone else but him especially) and will take every chance to baby him. Just call him the matchmaker from now on.

“There,” Mingi says, handing back Yeosang’s phone deviously. “You’ll get him in no time.”

Yeosang snatches his device back, staring at the screen before horror slowly starts bleeding into his face. He collapses dramatically backwards, almost tipping over the cake that he had set onto the table moments before. Bringing phone slowly to his face, he screams in an acceptable range for a public place without anyone suspecting murder.

“Look, it’s all chill man, he’ll either confess now or you could just play it off, see? I added a winky face.” 

“Shut the fuck up, you’re not invited to my funeral,” Yeosang seethes, still laying down on the couch with his phone screen burning into his eyes.

“You drama queen, I—”

The cafe door suddenly bursts open, shocking half of the patrons when a ball of grey and black hurtles inside, the bells above it jingling wildly as the figure dashes towards them at an amazing speed.

“Dude let’s go, it’s an emergency,” Yunho pants as he leans against the table with Yeosang and Mingi cowering slightly away from him. 

Mingi feels on the alert suddenly, Yunho looking like their whole dorm room is on fire, which almost happens way too often for him to take it lightly. “Is there a fire?”

“No, but we gotta go,” Yunho says hurriedly, grabbing Mingi and dragging him out the door. “Don’t worry about the stuff, Sangie. Seonghwa says he’ll come help.”

With that note, he hauls Mingi out in a flurry, the cafe bells jingling again as he dashes out the door. Mingi lets himself get pulled across campus, his legs doing the bare minimum to keep up with Yunho without tangling as he tries to force himself not to freak out at Yunho’s hand grabbing his, even though this is basically a normal interaction between them. He could also visualize Yeosang preparing to murder them, but he decides its better if he pushes that to the back of his mind.

“Ok, so I’m dying my hair blue and I need help,” Yunho says the moment he takes off his shoes and steps into their room.

“You…what?” Mingi pauses as he looks up at Yunho while fixing his sock.

“Plus you dyed your hair before right? So like I kinda need you to tell me what to do,” Yunho continues as if he didn’t barge into a cafe as if the world was ending.

“Really? You dragged me out of my study session to dye your hair?” Mingi might be slightly irked and stressed out, but he would be lying if he wasn’t slightly intrigued by Yunho’s sudden wish to change his hair color. “You bought the stuff?”

“Yup, I took Hongjoong with me to get the stuff.” The other rustles through a plastic shopping bag on the kitchen table and pulls out several bottles.

“And you didn’t ask him for help?”

“He had studio stuff.” 

Ah right, the new internship and his endless cycle of work. Classic Hongjoong things.

“Right let’s do this then. Hand me the bleach.”

They spend the next half hour lathering bleach into Yunho’s hair while jamming along to a random playlist. Mingi may have accidentally gotten some bleach on Yunho’s eyebrow, but in his defense, Bruno Mars was playing and he really couldn’t stay still. They manage to pile Yunho’s brightening hair onto his head so that he doesn't get it on his shirt, and he spends the next twenty minutes complaining about his burning scalp as Mingi feeds him some chips in order to make him not move and ruin the carefully spiked hair tower.

“Dude, did you know Seonghwa has a big honking crush on Yeosang,” Yunho says between crunches.

“No fucking way, Yeosang has a thing for him too!”

“That makes getting them together easier then!” Yunho fistpumps. “For once Wooyoung isn’t wrong with his crush predictions.”

“They’re cute too, I think,” Mingi adds, smiling widely at the thought.

Yunho’s head moves to nod, but he jerks to a stop after remembering that he has to balance a lump of hair on his head. “I’m kinda jealous.”

“Trying to get like that with your crush?” Mingi laughs forcefully, not knowing what he hopes Yunho would answer and really just creating more problems for himself.

“I wish,” Yunho groans, throwing his head back before Mingi catches it halfway and forces it upright, plastering the hair back to its spike to ensure that none is resting on Yunho’s neck.

“Don’t get all mushy on me sir,” Mingi responds, scrunching up his face in mock disgust when he really wanted to scream.

Eventually they rinse the bleach out, with Yunho complaining about his aching scalp the entire time as Mingi runs his fingers as softly as he could through the other’s hair. He ends up letting Yunho slump limply in the chair for a few minutes to ensure probably less complaining when they actually start to apply the dye. Yunho ends up whining just as much about his fragile scalp as Mingi rubs the blond strands thoroughly with blue that turned out way lighter than both of them expected.

“You look like a cartoon character,” he can’t help but blurt out as he looks in the mirror, watching the blue strands contrasting Yunho’s unfairly smooth skin.

“Are you calling me cartoonish?” Yunho fires back, eyebrows furrowing in mock anger as he stares at Mingi through the mirror.

“Nope, you’re just pretty,” Mingi says without a second thought before slapping a bleach covered glove over his mouth.

Thank god Yunho dips his head down shyly at the compliment, missing Mingi spitting at the dye on his lips and wiping it away with a towel. The homosexual tension thickens considerably, sticking to Mingi’s skin rather uncomfortably as he tries to finish dyeing the rest of Yunho’s head without anymore dumb confessions pouring out of his mouth.

“Oh, I also copped the new Animal Crossing game finally!” Yunho perks up suddenly while pulling on gloves to speed up the process. “Let’s play when we’re waiting for the dye to do its thing.”

“Oh, no way! Finally!” Mingi cheers as he drops another blue strand into the front. “I got Audie on my island though so I think I won the game already.”

“Oh shut up, you _know_ you gotta get Diana or it’s fake.”

“I thought Raymond was end game.”

“You’re right, but Olivia though.”

They continue to argue about villagers until Yunho’s hand slips and knocks over the bowl of dye, Mingi catching it fortunately, but having it land face down on his gloved palms and covering it with the dye. He sensibly slaps it on top of Yunho’s head to prevent it from dripping on their bathroom floor and ends up splattering it across both their faces. Yunho yelps indignantly and wipes off the goop off his face, smearing it back on Mingi’s arms as revenge. Gasping offensively, Mingi opts to bite down on Yunho’s ear, causing the other to let out an inhuman screech as he squirms in his seat.

“Get the fuck off of me and finish this so we can play,” Yunho grumbles, his words coming out as more of a whimper as his ear is still clamped between Mingi’s teeth.

Huffing in displeasure, Mingi removes himself from Yunho’s ear and rubs the remainder of the dye onto the back of Yunho’s head as Yunho meticulously fixes the front. They finish in silence, once again spiking Yunho’s hair up ridiculously so that it doesn’t fall into his face or onto his shirt. Yunho snaps a picture for his rare Instagram story, posing with a ‘v’ while Mingi holds up two pieces of his hair like long blue horns. A large spot of blue hair dye is left on Mingi’s nose from his attack on Yunho’s ear, and Yunho makes sure to tease him about it before posting it after Mingi threatens him to delete it.

“By the way, your character is the ugliest thing on this planet next to that ugly ass cow on your island,” Yunho comments the moment Mingi connects Yunho’s switch to the T.V.

“Tipper is adorable, you tasteless rat,” Mingi scoffs as he skips through Timmy and Tommy’s introduction at the beginning. “And my Gucci bucket hat is stylish as hell.”

“Oh shush,” Yunho says, flipping him off as he makes himself comfortable on the ground. “Anyways, any updates on Yeosang? Is he coming any time soon with your books? Because we might have to pretend we’re not at home just in case he tries to kill us.”

“Lemme check. Here.” Mingi hands off the switch to Yunho, digging into the blankets for his cellphone. 

He turns it on to a terrifying amount of messages and one too many phone calls from the zero calls Mingi ever received from Yeosang. Opening the texts, he is greeted with a bunch of curses and keyboard smashes from Yeosang, along with a death threat sprinkled in every so often just to illustrate how pissed off he is. But then again, Yeosang’s later messages are just filled with him screaming about Seonghwa being domestic and cheesy as fuck, so Mingi isn’t really fearing for his life as much as he probably should.

_Thinking about it, Yeosang did say he’d help me get with him if I helped with Seonghwa, I think I need to text him about that_ , he remembers, already typing in the message in the text box. 

“Yeosang said he’d what?”

_Fuck_.

Of course he would accidentally say his thoughts out loud. Of course Yunho would choose this moment to pay attention to his surroundings and hear him. There's really no way to worm his way out of this one, with Yunho sitting right there in between his legs with his eyes looking up at him like that, but he gives into the benefit of the doubt and tries to play it cool.

“Huh?” Just play dumb and hope it passes.

“You just said Yeosang said he’d help you get with someone, what do you mean ‘huh’?” Yunho turns fully in his seat with an accusing accent in his tone.

His hair flops a bit off of his head, but Mingi fears what would happen if he reaches out a hand to steady the tower. Clearly, he’s fucked. Like really fucked.

“Um…" Yunho looks deadly serious, with a glare that could rival Hongjoong’s when the older was on the brink of exploding. “Look…”

“Tell me,” Yunho says, his tone challenging as he leans back against the coffee table with a terribly calm voice.

“…Promise you won’t like…hate me?” Mingi tries nervously, feeling a lurching feeling in his gut as if he were on a roller coaster, except this time it was a roller coaster where Yunho could redirect the tracks either into the chilling ocean of truth or make him go through the fun loop-de-loops of love or something.

“Sure,” Yunho responds, not sounding at all promising, but Mingi will take what he can get right now.

He sucks in a huge breath, feeling more stress than he had ever collectively felt in his entire lifetime. Of course he chose _right now_ to say something stupid and ruin any real chances of actually woo-ing Yunho and making the other maybe forget about all the embarssing shit he did before and maybe accept a date with him or something, but clearly, his best friend is not in the mood for any woo-ing right now and the coiling in his stomach tightens until he could barely breathe.

“Ilikeyou.”

A pause.

“What?”

“B-but that only depends on if you like me back!” he adds in a panic, his head already swimming and the roller coaster rushing straight towards the cold ocean.

“So if— if I don’t?” Yunho questions, looking a bit perplexed.

“Well then…um…I’ll become very awkward until I can deal with my feelings?“ Mingi shrugs, the confusion Yunho is radiating infecting him and making him curious on why Yunho is even asking that question instead of giving him a straight rejection that he had already (kind of) mentally accepted. “Why?”

“I thought we were already like— a thing?” Yunho grins awkwardly, hand coming up to scratch the back of his head but remembering the blue hair dye sitting in it and setting it back down again. “I mean, you told me you liked me at Sangie’s New Year party, and then we like…made out…for fifteen minutes?”

Mingi’s jaw drops, with Animal Crossing’s tune playing in the background as he tries to wrap his mind around what he just learned. “You mean I confessed.”

“Yes?”

“But I was drunk and didn’t know about it.”

“Well, if you put it like that it makes sense.”

Mingi groans, burying his head into his hands. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“D-did you not want to date me?” Yunho’s voice is a bit wobbly, and Mingi’s head shoots up in a panic.

“Yes! I mean— No! I mean— Yes! I did want to date you, but I didn’t want to confess to you like— like _that_.” Mingi fumbles, his tongue not moving properly at the revelation that he and Yunho _made out_ , and he couldn’t even remember the experience.

“Oh.” Yunho sounds relieved. “Okay.”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.”

A pause.

“So…do you want to kiss right now or something?” Yunho suggests, his cheeks already turning pink at his bold suggestion after clearing everything up.

“Sure, bro,” mingi replies, a large smile splitting his face even with the jittery feeling in his stomach. “I need to know if I was a good kisser or not.”

“Don’t call me bro when we’re about to—” Yunho is cut off as Mingi leans forward and smashes their lips together. 

It hurt, and Yunho flinches back a little as their teeth collide, but after a small giggle, he reconnects their lips, softer this time, leaning comfortably forwards as they both melt into the kiss.

The kiss didn’t feel like fireworks exploding or suddenly seeing the world in different colors, but more like Mingi belonged. Like Mingi is home. It’s a comfortable soothing feeling, as if a cool breeze blows through his hair on a hot summer day, or a soft sunshower on a random afternoon, scattering rainbows around him as he raises his head and feels the little droplets roll off his cheeks. It makes him feel both uncomfortably hot and weirdly chilly, like he’s dunked into ice cold water telling him that he’s not dreaming right now and the burning realization that Yunho likes him back and they’re kissing and _holy shit_ he’s burning up.

They separate at the same time, breathing a little heavier and lips a little redder than before. With foreheads leaning against each other, they share a really, really ugly laugh as Yunho points out the newer streaks of blue on Mingi’s face from Yunho’s dyed hair.

“You look so fucking stupid right now,” Yunho giggles, thumb coming up and swiping some dye on Mingi’s cheeks.

“Says you with the tower hair,” Mingi teases back, grabbing at Yunho’s hand and planting a soft kiss after wiping off the dye from both their foreheads. “Want me to visit your island or me to come to yours?”

“You really want to come to my empty island?” Yunho remarks cheekily, turning back around with his switch in his hand put it so articulately

“Fine, fine,” Mingi retorts lightheartedly. “Come to my high-class island then.”

They set their consoles up silently with Yunho making his character and restarting twice since he got “unacceptably ugly” villagers the first two times. Mingi watches fondly as Yunho cheers for getting apples on his island (“For Jongho!” as Yunho so graciously put it) and freaks out about Phoebe and Roald being on his island before Mingi hurries him to visit his island.

“You know when you said you needed Yeosang’s help to get with someone I thought you were just playing with me,” Yunho starts as they wait idly for their shit wifi to send Yunho to Mingi’s island.

“Is that why you look like you wanted to stab me?” Mingi realizes as he manages to connect the dots rather quickly while tapping a beat on Yunho’s shoulders.

“I didn’t know I looked like that,” Yunho sniffs flatly, seeming more interested in the little blinking signal of a plane flying towards the island than talking about the really dumb misunderstanding. “Oh my god oranges, can I take some?”

“Hell yea dude.” Mingi leans back leisurely with his feet coming up to poke at Yunho’s sides, eliciting a snort from the other as he squirms away, making his hair tower fall. 

“Dude seriously?” Yunho whines, smacking Mingi’s thigh in retaliation, trying to push his hair back up clumsily with one hand, but immediately abandons it as the screen shows him flying over Mingi’s island. “Holy shit, is that Godzilla?”

“Duh, high class island.”

Mingi could hear a deep sigh from Yunho as the screen loads and his character exits the airport. “How long have you liked me anyways?”

“Well I found out that I liked you when I went on that not-really date with your sister, but she kinda had to put the pieces together for me.” Mingi drops some equipment for Yunho to use in front of him.

“Dumb bitch.”

“Bitch, it’s not like you remember when you started liking me.”

“Yes I do. Remember when Hongjoong said he was going to study abroad as a prank and I had a mental breakdown?” Mingi’s avatar chases after Yunho as he runs off towards the fruit trees without even waiting for him.

“Pfft— yeah of course. Your sentimental ass wouldn’t stop crying until I called Hongjoong over to tell you it was a prank,” Mingi chortles, recalling the ridiculous state Yunho was reduced to when Hongjoong broke the news, having to comfort and feed the other ice cream for a full four hours.

“Asshole, why do I even like you?” Yunho snarks as he proceeds to shake a money tree and steal away Mingi’s money.

“‘Cause I’m clearly a great boyfriend.” Mingi grit his teeth as he tries to stop Yunho from reaping all of his hard work. “Did you just— hit me with your net.”

“Oops,” Yunho said flatly. “Also I’m clearly the better boyfriend.”

“You’re on, fucker.”

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @bloominghwas


End file.
